Past, present, and future conflicts over freshwater

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.