This chapter examines the role of transboundary river flows in the complex and conflicted relations between states, primarily among Turkey, Syria and Iraq, with passing reference to other countries. The introduction reviews some fundamentals of transboundary surface waters in this area. A second section reviews the international legal framework for management of these water issues, but expresses considerable doubt about the practical impact of this law in this region. The chapter then analyzes the politics of water among all three countries, noting the prevalence of conflict despite some diplomatic agreements on transboundary river flows. In particular it notes the deterioration of water security from 2003 and the US invasion of Iraq, and especially from 2011 and the start of the internationalized Syrian civil war. In this time frame, water continued to be a politicized and securitized subject, and even part of violent politics. Water continued to be manipulated for strategic political purposes, often to the detriment of basic human needs. In this often violent context, efforts to consider access to safe water as a human right, effectively protected by general international law and the laws of war, faded into oblivion. The chapter concludes by asking whether declining water security in the Tigris– Euphrates basin might eventually lead to negative learning, through which major actors might learn from the errors of past policies and discover the need for improved water management in the future.

Introduction

After World War I the gradual emergence of the contemporary states of Turkey, Syria and Iraq resulted in all three legally independent states being inherently interconnected on water issues. About 50 percent of the Tigris River and about 90 percent of the Euphrates River originate in Turkey. While this situation gives Turkey certain advantages in regional water disputes (only about 1 percent of its freshwater originates in foreign areas), it guarantees that Turkey will be subject to demands by others that it be sensitive to equitable water-use and humanitarian considerations in downstream countries. In other words, natural resources in this river basin show a prevalent condition and indicate the probability of disappointment for efforts at multilateral riparian management: Turkey can project more power in hydropolitics than others, making mutually agreed river management difficult or impossible (for the general pattern see Allan and Mirumachi 2010).