UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly emphasized the need to explore the linkage between water, peace and security. Now, new research by the Strategic Foresight Group demonstrates that he has been right to do so. Empirical evidence in 148 countries and 205 shared river basins indicates that any two nations engaged in active water cooperation do not go to war.

Of the 148 countries covered by the report "Water Cooperation for a Secure World," 37 are at risk of going to war over issues other than water, including land, religion, history and ideology. These also happen to be precisely the 37 countries which do not engage in active water cooperation with their neighbors.

The good news is that more than a hundred of those countries which promote water cooperation in both letter and practice also enjoy peaceful and secure relationships with their neighboring countries. Water and peace are interdependent. 

Despite the growing international consensus in the international community on the significance of water as an instrument of cooperation (as reflected in the UN’s designation of 2013 as the Year of Water Cooperation), many analysts continue to project water as a source of potential conflict. It is true that lakes, rivers and glaciers around the world are shrinking. Growing pressures of population, economic growth, urbanization, climate change and deforestation can further deplete water resources, thus causing social and economic upheavals, but this need not be so.