CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 95

SHOGHIK TADEVOSYAN
In addition to asymmetrical power and hegemonic interaction,
Zeitoun and Warner offer three pillars of hydro-hegemony, including
riparian position (upstream/downstream), power (all three dimensions of
power mentioned above), and exploitation potential (technical capacity).
It is argued that if the state is in the upstream position, technically it has
more water and can dam it, in this way preventing the flow of water into
the downstream country. The second and third pillars of the framework of
hydro-hegemony are crucial because even if the state is on the top of a
river, if it does not have the sufficient amount of money to build dams
and does not know how to build them, the upstream position will not
help. Namely, the state does not just need favorable geography, but it also
needs exploitation potential. 41
All this becomes more complicated when talking about the
environment, particularly natural resources, as it is fraught with risks and
uncertainties (lack of conflict resolution mechanisms, distrust between
riparian states, etc.). The rational management of transboundary natural
resources requires cooperation between the parties, otherwise ‘the tragedy
of commons’ may occur. In addition, political uncertainty entails the
independent actions of the hegemon which are qualified as ‘unilateral
environmentalism’ in order ‘to protect [themselves] unilaterally from
transboundary spillover effects’. 42 If there is a (political) conflict between
the riparian states, the situation of ‘environmental unilateralism’ is
exacerbated by leading to more independent actions and the unilateral
framing of issues by the hegemon, as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Data Analysis
The Jordan River Basin
The Jordan River Basin, with an area of approximately 18.500
square kilometers and length of 250 kilometers, borders Jordan (40%),
Israel (37%), Syria (10%), the West Bank (9%), and Lebanon (only 4%).
The river originates from the convergence of three headwaters, the Dan
River, the Banias River, and the Hasbani River, and their convergence
point is located 5 km south of Israel’s northern border. It joins Lake
Tiberias, flowing through the Hula Valley. From Lake Tiberias the Lower
Jordan River outflows and, joining the Yarmouk River, flows southward

41 Zeitoun and Warner, “Hydro-hegemony – a Framework for Analysis of Trans-boundary
Water Conflicts.”
42 Itay Fischhendler, Shlomi Dinar and David Katz, “The Politics of Unilateral
Environmentalism: Cooperation and Conflict over Water Management along the Israeli-
Palestinian Border,” Global Environmental Politics 11, no. 1 (2011): 39
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