Emerging Security Threats in the Middle East: The Impact of Climate Change and Globalization

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Increasingly the Middle East and its growing population face a highly complex and fragile security system. The rich deposits of natural resources, such as oil and gas, suffer from a strained renewable resource base that includes water and arable land. This leads to water scarcity, desertification, and land degradation. Increasing population, industrialization, and urbanization put more and more demand on the food supply. Energy insecurity may not be generally associated with the Middle East, but the countries in the eastern Mediterranean part have been traditionally vulnerable to it as their fossil fuel endowments have been low. Another issue is the large-scale temporary labor migration and the large number of forced migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons. The book analyzes these emerging security challenges in a comprehensive and systematic manner. It draws national and regional security issues into both the global security and human security perspectives.

Reviews

This comprehensive analysis of the issues that destabilize the national and international politics of the Middle East. It is based on long and skilled observation of the problems of accessing secure water, energy and food supplies in the region. The authors bring the analysis right up to date by discussing the violent first and second decades of the twenty-first century. By deploying comprehensive securitization frame they effectively assist the reader to understand the variable intensity of regional conflict. They also link these dynamics with what has become known as the water, energy and food nexus. -- Prof. J. A. (Tony) Allan, Department of Geography, King's College London
This is an important book that deserves the attention of anyone interested in the condition of the Middle East region and its impact on the world. The book's comprehensive overview of the underlying security challenges facing the Middle Eastincluding water, energy, arable land, urban sprawl, pollution, and demographic issueshighlights existential stresses that drive some current tensions and also threaten the region's future. If you wonder what issues the Middle East region and the world should address to lower tensions and promote stability in the decades ahead, Swain and Jgerskog's work is a compelling starting place. -- Rami G. Khouri, founding director and currently senior fellow, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut

Author Bio

Ashok Swain is a professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden. Anders Jgerskog is Counselor for Regional Water issues in the MENA region at the Embassy of Sweden in Amman, Jordan.