It's crazy that Great Britain was even ever involved in a treaty related to this.
Wait until you hear about Sykes-Picot and the Durand line.
Who Owns the Nile?
51–60 of 106 posts
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#52Something similar is happening in South Asia, where China has repeatedly proposed plans to dam rivers in Tibet. This has led to the possibility of war (https://asiatimes.com/2021/01/china-risks-a-himalayan-water-...) with India because rivers fed by the Himalayas supply a lot of India’s fresh water, and any alteration would dramatically affect its environment, agriculture, etc. This is a modern issue both because Tibet was historically it’s own sovereign territory and because the world didn’t face such overpopulation or resource strains.
The southwest of the US addressed this via an interstate compact that lays out shared allocation of river flows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are small conflicts and skirmishes. Take India-China. Those borderguards were literally fighting eachother with rocks and sticks because they don't issue guns to them PRECISELY to avoid war.
Until they're not? Major conflicts always seem to be negative feedback loop series of escalations.
I think you mean "positive feedback loop", which means a self-reinforcing cycle.
A negative feedback loop is the opposite, a feedback mechanism that self-corrects or dampens the signal.
Re. the state of war, I suggest reading "Enlightenment Now" by Stephen Pinker. We are living through the most peaceful period in history.
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has the world always been this on-the-cusp of war? Turkey-Greece, Azerbaijan-Armenia, China-Taiwan, Ethiopia, Egypt-Uganda, Saudi-Iran-Yemen, Congo, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Russia-Ukraine, Morocco-Western Sahara-Algeria, India-China, India-Pakistan, Syria Maybe I've just been watching too much Caspian Report lately, and a lot of these issues are a century in the making, but damn if it doesn't feel like early WW2 issues…
This is probably the most peaceful time in history, there is no armed conflict in the western hemishpere. https://time.com/4475617/how-peace-finally-came-to-reign-thr... Most of the world is at peace, it's a remarkable accomplishment.
My understanding is that economic interdependence deserves the bulk of the credit for this relative peace. Tying the economic prosperity of nations together makes it harder to rationalise physical conflict.
But perhaps we can also thank global communications for making it that little bit harder (though still by no means impossible) to sufficiently otherise far away populations.
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#55Egypt is not a "proper" country. It is simply a string of settlements along the banks of Nile river and its delta. Don't let the large trapezoid shape fool you. Most of that is the result of a line on the ground drawn by colonialists. If you want see a country like Egypt look at the Gambia, another country drawn along the eponymous river wholly surrounded by Senegal, another product of colonial machinations.
Over 90 million people live on that insignificant river! Egypt was the center of the Mughal Sultanate that beat the Crusaders and the Mongols. They went into decline under the Ottomans and never really recovered — infamously, they faced the Ottoman guns with swords and bows in 1517 and were unceremoniously trounced.
s/Mughal/Mamluk/ for those wondering why I placed an Indian dynasty in Egypt
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is probably the most peaceful time in history, there is no armed conflict in the western hemishpere. https://time.com/4475617/how-peace-finally-came-to-reign-thr... Most of the world is at peace, it's a remarkable accomplishment.
My understanding is that economic interdependence deserves the bulk of the credit for this relative peace. Tying the economic prosperity of nations together makes it harder to rationalise physical conflict. But perhaps we can also thank global communications for making it that little bit harder (though still by no means impossible) to sufficiently otherise far away populations.
And nukes certainly limit large scale wars as well.
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#57Doesn't Egypt have a really powerful military?
If the dam's an existential threat to Egypt, why don't the Egyptians simply launch a military strike to blow it up?
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#58Egypt literally dies as a nation without Nile water. Uganda purchasing SU27 advanced long range fighter bombers and Egypt recently placing increased emphasis and resources on training military units(including western training efforts) responsible for upstream Nile force projection is not a coincidence. Nile resource sharing is a massive flash point. I recall glancing at an engineering report that indicated clearing/d…
Great video on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BCY0SPOFpE
Also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOezSxtL05E
Great yt channel in general.
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is probably the most peaceful time in history, there is no armed conflict in the western hemishpere. https://time.com/4475617/how-peace-finally-came-to-reign-thr... Most of the world is at peace, it's a remarkable accomplishment.
My understanding is that economic interdependence deserves the bulk of the credit for this relative peace. Tying the economic prosperity of nations together makes it harder to rationalise physical conflict. But perhaps we can also thank global communications for making it that little bit harder (though still by no means impossible) to sufficiently otherise far away populations.
Oh, yes. I believe it was Francis Fukuyama who predicted that different regions of the world would specialize in producing specific products, trade would increase, and wars would decrease. Wars would decrease because of the DEPENDENCE of trade - BUT international sanctions would replace wars as the key piece to hold other countries in check.
We are seeing the US sanction other countries when they do things we don't like - and we are getting sanctioned in turn.
Re: Who Owns the Nile?
#60> While most rivers flow south, the Nile flows north
I've heard this before, but it doesn't sound right, unless you get a weird bias because of weather patterns and lots of landmass that would drain into the arctic ocean.