ABSTRACT
Physically, economically, socially and particularly geopolitically, the Middle East is dominated by two liquids: water and oil. Both are extracted from specific geological structures and both in different ways are vital to the development of human society in much of the region. They therefore provide an appropriate link between the physical and the human geography of the Middle East. Water is highly significant as a result of scarcity within the region whereas with oil the major deficiency is outside the region. Both are therefore considered strategic resources, the supplies of which may be disrupted by geopolitical actions. Therefore, they provide a key connection between the systematic and the geopolitical sections of this book.
