Water Diplomacy Role in Easing IranIraq Hydropolitical Tensions

Environmental sustainability and human settlement are tightly intertwined with water. Therefore, water has had a historymaker function throughout the history of ties between human communities and politicospatial units. Over the past decades, water consumption has increased in parallel with a reduction in the levels of these strategic resources, thereby orientating the hydro politicsbased foreign policy of nations, particularly in lowprecipitation regions. In this vein, Iraq’s geographical position is such that several seasonal and permanent rivers running in western Iran flow into its western neighbor, providing for water supply security in some eastern regions of that country. Over the past one and a halfdecade, droughtstricken Iran has moved to harvest water flowing out across its western borders, which has consequently reduced water inflow into Iraq and stirred up hydropolitical tensions between the two nations. This research aims to identify effective driving forces in transforming hydropolitical tensions to water cooperation between Iran and Iraq. The functional data required for this research has been gathered by the librarysurvey method (interview and expert forum) to be analyzed with a combined quantitativequalitative approach and applying structural analysis. The research found that water diplomacy has a strategic role in reducing hydropolitical tensions.