ABSTRACT
The most serious hazard to the stability of the Middle East will arise from the region’s indigenous socioeconomic problems, particularly those caused by population growth, in conjunction with an increasing scarcity and maldistribution of water resources. There are three key variables that will determine the extent to which the Middle East will become destabilized in the 1990s: economic conditions, demographic trends, and the availability and distribution of vital water resources. The nations of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey provide a good representation of how the variables of economics, population, and water may operate in the changing circumstances of the region. The contours of the economic landscape encompassing the regional quintet are discouraging. Underpinning intrinsically all that happens in the economic life of the region are the demographic realities. All of the foregoing socioeconomic issues relate integrally to the question of the region’s vital natural resources.
