Past, present, and future conflicts over freshwater

Abstract

This article offers an approach to the role that fresh water plays and may potentially play in the international security agenda of the early twenty-first century. First, the conflictual potential of this natural resource and the variety of roles it may adopt in each conflict is discussed. Second, a brief enumeration and analysis of inter-state conflicts in the last century with the control of fresh water as a main or additional cause is presented. The same is done regarding twenty-first-century conflicts in the third place, and a general overview of their possible evolution and the potential for similar events to erupt on a regional basis is also introduced. Finally, additional considerations will be provided.