Water Scarcity, Environmental Change, and Conflict

 The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding pursues collaborations and research to predict the potential of climate change in sparking or exacerbating conflict. The Center has pursued this issue from a number of different perspectives:

• Center staff published a USIP PeaceBrief on regional water management in the Tigris-Euphrates basin and the opportunities it presents for diplomatic engagement between Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. 
• It was a core topic of consideration for the National Academies/USIP Roundtable Working Group, and it was clear that any future roundtable would want to include a sub-group focussing on this topic.
• The Center is investigating the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change and water scarcity in conflict zones. We are examining how scientific cooperation can create diplomatic breakthroughs in regions like the Tigris-Euphrates river basin and the Hindu Kush mountain ecosystem, where tension over water and other resources are ongoing or imminent.   
• We were invited by the World Water Forum - the premier event on the subject of climate change issues, held once every 3 years - to discuss "Alleviating the Effects of Climate Change and Water Availabilty on Armed Conflict," at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul on March 18, 2009. Joel Whitaker, a senior advisor to the Center, represented us there.

 This is part of the Center's Science Diplomacy for Conflict Prevention initiative.