Written: August 2014
In
recent months, a Sunni Muslim insurgent group has surprised the world with a
wave of complex military victories as it attempts to establish an “Islamic
State” across Iraq and Syria. It was unexpected to outsiders who viewed the
Islamic State as yet another anarchic and obsolete terrorist group. However, the
rebels have shown astounding levels of sophistication and strategy as they
swiftly capture targets along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. What
distinguishes the rebels of the Islamic State is their keen awareness of how
water resources shape the lives of all Syrians and Iraqis – past and present.
If policymakers wish to understand or outmaneuver these insurgents, they have
to be just as aware of the real power that water resources hold in the Middle
East. This paper discusses how water scarcity contributed to the instability in
Iraq as well as the civil war in Syria, and how the Islamic State has since
used water to exploit the chaos.
