Reading Radar:
Water Security, Nonproliferation, and Aid Shocks in the Middle East

Share |
Posted by Christina Daggett // Monday, January 24, 2011

In a report sponsored by the Stanley Foundation and the Stimson Center, authors Brian Finlay, Johan Bergenas, and Veronica Tessler discuss the implications of what a growing population and dwindling water supply will have on the people and governments of the Middle East. In the report, titled “Beyond Boundaries in the Middle East: Leveraging Nonproliferation Assistance to Address Security/Development Needs with Resolution 1540,” the authors point out that while the Middle East has six percent of the world’s population, it has only 0.7 percent of the world’s fresh water resources. This supply is expected to be halved in the coming decades due to “rapid population growth and increased standards of living in urban areas.” To make up for this shortfall, governments are turning to nuclear-powered desalination technology, which poses risks to the nonproliferation movement and the safety and stability of the region. (Editor's note: for more on water as a strategic resource in the Middle East, see CSIS’ latest report.)

A recent study by Richard Nielsen, Michael Findley, Zachary Davis, Tara Candland, and Daniel Nielson from Bringham Young University examines the relationship of severe decreases in foreign aid to inciting violence among rebels in recipient countries. The study, “Foreign Aid Shocks as a Cause of Violent Armed Conflict”, examines aid shocks in 139 countries from 1981-2005. The authors find that when a donor country cuts off or suddenly limits aid due to economic or political reasons, this volatility upsets the status quo and gives strength to rebel groups who play upon the government’s inability to deliver adequate resources to the population. Instead of a sudden or sharp withdrawal in aid, Nielsen et al conclude that “if donors decide to remove aid, they should do so gradually over time because sudden large decreases in aid could be deadly.”

Print this post
Topics: , , , , , ,

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Search

Loading
Across My Desk adaptation Afghan DHS Afghanistan Africa aging agriculture Algeria Arctic Asia Australia Backdraft Bangladesh Beat on the Ground biodiversity biofuels Bolivia Brazil Building Commitment Burundi Cambodia Campus Beat Canada Chad China climate change Colombia community-based conflict Congress conservation consumption cooperation COP-15 COP-16 COP-17 Crossroads Cuba democracy demography development disaster relief Dot-Mom DRC eco-tourism economics Ecuador education Egypt energy environment environmental health environmental peacemaking environmental security Ethiopia Europe Eye On family planning Feed the Future flooding FOCUS food security foreign policy forests From Durban From Ethiopia From Wilson funding GBV gender geoengineering Ghana global health GMHC-10 Haiti HIV/AIDS humanitarian ICFP India Indonesia international environmental governance Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan JPR Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Kyrgyzstan land Latin America Lebanon Liberia Libya livelihoods Madagascar Malawi Mali maternal health MDGs media Mexico Middle East migration military minerals mitigation Morocco Mozambique NATO natural resources NCSE 2012 Nepal Nicholas Kristof Niger Nigeria Nigeria Beyond nutrition oceans On the Beat Pakistan Papua New Guinea peace parks Peru PHE PHE Champion Philippines Planet 2012 podcast Pop Audio Pop Tweets population poverty protected areas QDDR QDR Reading Radar Reading the QDDR REDD Rio+20 Russia Rwanda Sahel sanitation Saudi Arabia security Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Asia Sri Lanka State Sudan SXSW Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Top 10 Tunisia Turkey U.S. Uganda UK UN urbanization USAID Uzbekistan video Vietnam water World Bank Yemen Yemen Beyond the Headlines You Are Invited youth Zimbabwe