There are perennial discussions about water being the only resource that truly matters, and many questions that come my way about water wars of the future.
There’s something to this, after all. We need drinking water to live, we need water to irrigate our crops and much of the world needs several dozen gallons of water a day to live a modern industrial life. Ergo, water is one of the most geopolitical significant commodities in the world.
Yes and no.
Most of the world’s major cultures developed along, and subsequently retained control over, major internal waterways. Most major national boundaries for successful countries today fully encompass rivers and lakes sufficient to provide for fresh water.
Which is not to say that water access or disputes do not exist in specific localities. But these tend to be more localized security and political, rather than globally significant geopolitical concerns.
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