Water: Asia's New Battleground
Chellaney has crafted a formidable interdisciplinary book. He has done readers a great service in tracking down reams of scholarly information, beautifully knit together, covering a dazzling range of countries and disciples, from Bangladesh to Mongolia, climate change science to regional security doctrine. Despite the vast scope of the book, the writing is clear and lively. --Christina Larson, Washington Monthly, March/April 2012.We're all familiar with conflicts over territory in places like Tibet  and Kashmir, but Brahma Chellaney persuasively argues that the most  precious resource in these disputes is not land, but water. In a world  where nearly one billion people lack access to clean water, Chellaney  shows how today's economic growth could lead to tomorrow's 'water wars.'  With his policy prescriptions, he also gives us a way to stop these  conflicts before they begin. This is a vital book for anybody interested  in diplomacy and conflict in the twenty-first century. --Stanley A.  Weiss, founding chairman, Business Executives for National SecurityThe dominant conflict in geopolitics in this century is the scramble  for energy, raw materials, and water. Brahma Chellaney is the first to  publish an in-depth analysis of potential challenges and conflicts  resulting from the scarcity of water in Asia. His book is particularly  important to understand the impact and indeed risks in an era of a  growing tendency, which one meanwhile can call resource  imperialism. --Friedbert Pflüger, director, European Centre for Energy  and Resource Security, King's College LondonWater: Asia's New Battleground is a pioneering, comprehensive, and  insightful analysis which provides also the strategies for a solution.  This is a timely and enlightening book since, as Professor Chellaney  demonstrates, 'what Asia confronts today, the other continents are  likely to face tomorrow'. --Yoon Young-kwan, professor of international  relations at Seoul National University and former foreign minister of South KoreaThis is a well-written, thoroughly researched, and carefully analyzed  book on a crucial subject matter. It is impressive for the richness and  depth of the chapters, the interdisciplinary nature of the project and  the marrying of materials from geopolitics, environmental studies, and  geology. It contains a wealth of information on the complex dynamics  involving water in the current and emerging Asian political and economic  landscape. The book shows Chellaney's thorough knowledge of the region,  its intricacies, and its long history of connectivity in terms of water  sharing. --T.V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations,  McGill UniversityHis   new book is an exhaustive study of a narrow, but vital, aspect of the   Asian security landscape: the growing struggle for water   resources --Gideon Rachman, Financial TimesRanging   widely across the region, this forcefully written study warns of a   growing risk of interstate conflicts over water. The only way to avoid   such outcomes, Chellaney argues, is to adopt a cooperative, rules-based   approach to water management — a hard sell for sovereign states. --Foreign AffairsThis well-researched volume is a fascinating blend of geography,  hydrology and politics, and Chellaney’s statistics make convincing  arguments ... This prescriptive volume is a sobering read for those of  us residing in Asia, and the weight of its message certainly deserves  urgent and widespread attention. --Loh Su Hsing, Asian Review of BooksBrahma Chellaney's masterful, pioneering study argues that oceanic territorial disputes are just a tiny tip of the iceberg. Freshwater is fast emerging as Asia's new battlefield, and strategists, economists, diplomats and generals had best prepare for it now. Chellaney superbly combines a panoramic picture of Asia as a "global water crisis hub" with detailed case studies of potential water wars. --Global Asia.