Water shortages contribute to security and political instability and conflict. Conflict can erupt due to water shortages themselves, or due to an actor who can manipulate water supplies in a way that turns them into a weapon for use in the conflict, which is actually known as “weaponizing water.” Water resources have become one of the main inputs that parties to internal conflicts employ against each other, in what Professor of International Relations at George Washington University (Marcus DuBois King) calls “militarization of water,” especially in light of the complexity of these conflicts, their prolongation, the absence of water alternatives, and the impact of climate change on conflicts, which is clearly evident in the case of several Arab countries, including Iraq, especially with the escalation of the roles of violent actors in these hotbeds, whether they are armed groups or terrorist organizations, and their dispute with the regular army and their focus on weakening the management of the infrastructure, in a way that led to a lack of clarity about water rights in the region. The research problem was reformulated through a main question that reads as follows: To what extent can the aspects of Political and economic stability in Iraq with water, meaning has the water resources crisis in Iraq produced repercussions that will leave repercussions on security stability?
Ali Al-Tamimi (2024) studied this question.