The Identification of Water Conflict and its Resolution Cover Image

The Identification of Water Conflict and its Resolution
The Identification of Water Conflict and its Resolution

Author(s): Milovan Vuković
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Универзитет у Нишу
Keywords: water dispute; water stress; indicators; strategic conflict; symbolic conflict

Summary/Abstract: This paper analzyes a special kind of an environmental conflict – the water disputes over international fresh water resources (rivers). The ''strategic versus symbolic'' typology of conflicts, derived from Rotham's theory (2001) on interactive conflict resolution, has been used in this study. In order to present a thorough explаnation of this phenomenon, the paper discusses the next set of issues: (1) water as a source of conflict, (2) indicators of water stress, and (3) consequences of the type of water conflict to cooperative efforts. It has been shown that knowing the ratio between strategic and symbolic values for any particular water conflict could be useful in order to assess the most appropriate response of the international community and non-state actors.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 81-93
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English