Strategic Water
Iraq and Security Planning in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin
Frederick Lorenz and Edward J. Erickson
DOI: 10.56686/9780991158805
ABOUT THE BOOK
After the final phase of drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq, it is important to do what we can to help maintain a level of stability and to look ahead to emerging security threats. Strategic Water: Iraq and Security Planning in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin by Frederick Lorenz and Edward J. Erickson makes an important contribution to this effort by taking a close look at a serious problem that is often neglected—the decline in freshwater availability and its impact on regional security.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Colonel Frederick M. Lorenz, USMC (Ret), is a senior lecturer at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, where he currently teaches International Humanitarian Law and Water and Security in the Middle East. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 27 years as a judge advocate, including a tour as an infantry company commander. In 1992 and 1993, he was the Staff Judge Advocate for Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, and he returned there as Staff Judge Advocate to General Anthony Zinni for the UN evacuation in 1995. Before his retirement from the Marine Corps in 1998, he taught political science at National Defense University as well as the first course in environmental security at this institution. As a consultant to the World Water Assessment Program of UNESCO, he published the current online report The Protection of Water Facilities under International Law. He traveled regularly to Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan between 1997 and 2004, researching water and security issues in the Euphrates-Tigris basin.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Erickson, USA (Ret), is a professor of military history at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. He is a field artilleryman and Turkish specialist with 16 years of overseas service in Europe and the Middle East. He served in Operations Desert Shield/ Desert Storm with the 3d Armored Division, Joint Endeavor in Bosnia with the NATO Implementation Force, and Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 4th Infantry Division. After retiring from active duty, Dr. Erickson worked as a high school teacher and school administrator in his hometown of Norwich, New York. He returned to Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007 for a year to teach as professor of political science at the Ministry of Defense Training and Development College. Since 2009, he has taught at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. He is the author of 11 books about the Ottoman Army and modern Turkey, the most recent of which is Gallipoli: The Ottoman Campaign, as well as numerous articles on similar topics. Professor Erickson holds a doctorate in history from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapters
1) The Euphrates-Tigris Basin and Its History
2) Geopolitics in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin
3) Projected Water Demand and the Impact of Climate Change
4) Iraq and the Hidden Issue: Kurdish Control of the Tigris
5) Hydropolitics
6) Law, Science, and Diplomacy
7) The Approaching Crisis and a Framework for Action
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Bibliography