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Water, Peace, and War : Confronting the Global Water Crisis. Brahma Chellaney. Lan- ham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013. xxiv + 400pp., maps, drawings, appendices, notes, glossary, and index. (ISBN 978-1-4422-2139-0)
In recent years, the academic literature has been awash with books fo- cusing on the global water crisis, water wars, water conflicts, and the doom and gloom of environmental degradation. So it was with some trepidation that I opened Brahma Chellaney's new opus, Water, Peace, and War : Confronting the Water Crisis, fearing this to be more of the same. I should not have worried; Chellaney brings his usual astute and critical analysis to the global water crisis with aplomb. I highly recommend this book for those interested in the geopolitics of water issues or those looking for new insights on international water concerns. Some might argue that it is somewhat derivative of his previous work, Water : Asia's New Battleground (Georgetown University Press, 2011) but I believe that this will be even more widely read because of its broader perspective.
In this book, Chellaney takes us on an all-encompassing analysis of global water issues, geopolitical battles, and international water politics, sweep- ing from critical site to critical site, recounting intra-national and international disputes from around the globe. The writing is along the style of Jarred Dia- mond or Carl Sagan weaving the big picture from a vast array of case-studies, identifying themes and prospects, and pulling seemingly disparate facts into a coherent whole. As such, inevitably perhaps, one could find criticism with some specifics and certainly raise issues with his characterization of some water con- flicts. For instance, his depiction of the Pakistan/India water clashes invariably comes with a distinctly Indian perspective, issues that...