CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 94

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2)
achieved through water resource control strategies such as resource
capture, integration and containment’. 36 Strategies can be in the form of
pressure or coercion by applying hard power, different treaties, and
agreements by applying bargaining or ideational powers, etc., which can
be handily manipulated especially in weak institutional contexts.
Similarly, Wessels defines hydro-hegemony as a concept used in
political science, as well as in international relations and water studies,
which describes one or two powers having a hegemonic role over the
control of water resources (‘power over’ dimension), and contrasts it to
the equitable distribution and management of water between the riparian
states. He associates it with the colonial mentality, when more militarized
and powerful actors exploit natural resources by violating human rights
and damage those who are directly dependent on these resources. 37
It should be emphasized that many researchers attach great
importance to the role of power in hegemonic actions and attribute such
developments in Israeli-Palestinian relations to the asymmetrical
distribution of power. For instance, trying to get deeper insight into the
concept of hydro-hegemony, Zeitoun adopts three types of power 38
identified by the political and social theorist Steven Lukes, which are
hard power, bargaining power, and ideational power. 39 The latter two can
be considered as two dimensions of soft power developed by Joseph Nye.
In other words, hard power is the ability to influence on others through
force or coercion (mostly material power), which can be measured by the
economic and military capabilities of the state or, in terms of
geographical positioning, the state’s favorable location (riparian position,
namely upstream or downstream). On the contrary, bargaining and
ideational powers can be achieved through attraction and/or persuasion
(immaterial power), 40 which is difficult and sometimes impossible to
measure. Going forward, it should be noted that a state or political entity
is considered a hegemon when it is dominant in all three dimensions of
power.

36
Mark Zeitoun and Jeroen Warner, “Hydro-hegemony – a Framework for Analysis of
Trans-boundary Water Conflicts,” Water Policy 8 (2006): 435.
37 Josepha Ivanka Wessels, “Challenging Hydro-hegemony: Hydro-politics and Local
Resistance in the Golan Heights and the Palestinian Territories,” International Journal of
Environmental Studies 72, no. 4 (2015): 601-623.
38 Zeitoun, Power and Water in the Middle East.
39 Steven Lukes, “Power and the Battle for Hearts and Minds,” Millennium – Journal of
International Studies 33, no. 3 (2005): 477-493.
40 Joseph Nye, Soft power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public
Affairs, 2004).
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