Cooperation over Water Resources as a Tool for Desecuritisation: The Israeli – Palestinian Case

Coşkun, Bezen Balamir

doi:10.5848/csp.2823.00005

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…For example, the case studies confirm that whilst there is an unwillingness to cooperate at the state level in Israel/Palestine, there are local actors willing to engage in environmental cooperation (Coskun 2009). Some actors at this scale possess counter-discourses which can be used to begin to challenge the dominant conflictdiscourses if we can find ways to overcome the barriers to cooperation (Fröhlich 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although a peace process began in Oslo in 1993, it subsequently collapsed in 2000 with the eruption of the Al-Aqsa intifada (e.g. Coskun 2009). Since that time, there has been a political stalemate and the conflict continues.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since that time, there has been a political stalemate and the conflict continues. However, whilst state-level officials still view water-management as a security issue embedded within 'high politics', at the same time there are local level actors willing to cooperate on such issues (Coskun 2009). The presence of a local willingness to cooperate makes it surprising that previous studies of environmental cooperation have largely looked at state-level cooperative interactions.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unpacking the complex nature of cooperative interactions: case studies of Israeli–Palestinian environmental cooperation in the greater Bethlehem area

Reynolds

2016

GeoJournal

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In the last few decades, a growing number of theorists have suggested that the natural environment can be a platform for promoting cooperation between former adversaries and can perhaps contribute to peacebuilding. However, environmental cooperation has not lived up to these claims. In many cases, such cooperation has largely been ineffective and/or inequitable. Therefore, there is a growing awareness that we cannot be overly optimistic at the first signs of 'cooperation'. It is argued that this reality results from the great complexity inherent in cooperative interactions. This paper explores the nature of such cooperation in two Israeli-Palestinian case studies. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the longest-running protracted conflicts in the modern era and is currently characterised by a political stalemate. However, there is also a willingness by some at the local level to cooperate. Therefore Israel/Palestine provides an ideal case study. The findings of the paper illuminate the complex nature of environmental cooperation and reveal that even with the presence of good intentions, cooperation at the subnational level is impacted by the broader socio-political structures and contexts within which it is embedded. In these case studies, this is negatively affecting both the nature and scale of the processes and outcomes.Ultimately, these factors are making such interactions limited, unstable and/or prone to collapse. The paper concludes that only by conducting in-depth multitiered and context-specific analyses of cooperative processes and subsequently finding ways to overcome the identified barriers can we move towards more successful environmental cooperation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unpacking the complex nature of cooperative interactions: case studies of Israeli–Palestinian environmental cooperation in the greater Bethlehem area

Reynolds

2016

GeoJournal

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“…But the environmental conflict perspective cannot explain why actors from both countries still engage in waterrelated cooperation. One might argue that this cooperation largely takes place between NGOs or academic actors, which face fewer constraints (e.g., from their constituencies, international partners or potential coalition partners) than elected politicians at the international parquet (Coskun, 2009). But such constraints also provide incentives towards cooperation rather than conflict, while scholars and activists often experience considerable pressures when they engage in more cooperative relationships (Alatout, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such cooperation is remarkable within a political context that is characterized by mutual suspicion and hostility. It is part of a counter movement that has been developing since the early 1990s (Isaac and Shuval, 1994) and focusses on the cooperative potential of fair and mutually beneficial joint water management and its possible role for peacemaking and peace-building (Coskun, 2009;Kramer, 2008). This is not to say that such water cooperation is entirely unproblematic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-environmental cooperation and conflict? A discursive understanding and its application to the case of Israel and Palestine

Ide¹,

Fröhlich

2015

Earth Syst. Dynam.

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Abstract. The existing literature faces difficulties when accounting for the simultaneity of socio-environmental conflict and cooperation. We suggest that this puzzle can be solved by more recent constructivist works, which argue that conflictive or cooperative behavior is driven by discursively constructed interests, identities and situation assessments. Based on a literature review and field interviews, we analyze and compare the dominant water discourses in Israel and Palestine with the discourse dominant among the activists of a water cooperation project between communities from Israel and the West Bank. Our main result is that discourses are indeed crucial for understanding water-related conflict and cooperation. This finding highlights the relevance of constructivist approaches in the study of socio-environmental conflict and cooperation as well as of practices of bottom-up discursive conflict transformation.

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How Can “Overall Progress and Development” Fail in Post-Conflict Societies? Securitization of the 2005–07 Stabilization and Association Agreement Negotiations in Republika Srpska

Kočan

2022

Nationalities Papers

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In this article, we analyze how the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), which signalizes the overall (positive) progress and development of the potential candidate country of the post-Yugoslav space, is not straightforwardly translated as a benchmark for progress and development by the political elite. Drawing on securitization theory in order to understand the grammar of security, the wider discursive context, and the position of power and authority in RS during the analyzed period – and informed by the triangulation of content and discourse analysis – we show how the negotiations for the SAA were (mis)used in order to present both the “internal and external Other” as an existential threat for Republika Srpska. Our analysis shows that although the securitizing acts of the political elite from RS did not succeed in terms of the final outcome as the SAA was signed, certain security narratives, which are present in the contemporary sociopolitical landscape in BiH, have been constructed during this period and embedded into the wider discursive context and consolidated the position of power and authority of Milorad Dodik’s SNSD.

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Cooperation over Water Resources as a Tool for Desecuritisation: The Israeli – Palestinian Case

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Unpacking the complex nature of cooperative interactions: case studies of Israeli–Palestinian environmental cooperation in the greater Bethlehem area

Unpacking the complex nature of cooperative interactions: case studies of Israeli–Palestinian environmental cooperation in the greater Bethlehem area

Socio-environmental cooperation and conflict? A discursive understanding and its application to the case of Israel and Palestine

How Can “Overall Progress and Development” Fail in Post-Conflict Societies? Securitization of the 2005–07 Stabilization and Association Agreement Negotiations in Republika Srpska

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