Transboundary climate security : climate vulnerability and rural livelihoods in the Jordan River Basin

Abstract

This study investigates the climate-related vulnerabilities of agricultural communities in (post)occupation environments. Following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2012: 5), vulnerability is understood as the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected by hazards or stresses, where climatic stresses are mediated by social vulnerabilities. Military occupation by foreign armed forces comprises an exceptional but under-researched condition of social vulnerability to climate-related stresses. We define (post)occupation as areas with current or historically recent experience of military occupation. The three study areas reflect distinct stages of occupational control within the same regional watershed (Jordan Basin). They encompass: protracted military occupation (West Bank), annexation (Golan Heights) and post-occupation (southern Lebanon). That the coercive control regime for all three areas is, or was, administered by the Israeli state (military or civil administration) creates a governance linkage for comparative analysis. This research project is the first comparative study of climate vulnerability in conditions of (post)occupation. While each of the three areas has