CMES Seminar: Rethinking the Mosul Dam - A Reassessment of its Impact Beyond the Traditional Narratives

Abstract

The Mosul Dam, one of Iraq’s most significant infrastructural projects, has been the subject of extensive debate and scrutiny, often overshadowed by negative narratives concerning its safety and environmental impact. These narratives often overlook the dam’s significant function in fostering local, regional, and global water cooperation. This article seeks to provide a comprehensive revaluation of the dam’s contributions to water management and diplomatic relations. By systematically addressing the prevalent criticisms, this study highlights the recent renovation works that extended the dam’s lifespan. These works, which will be examined with a quantitative methodology in the study, involved the Iraqi Government, the Kurdish Regional Government, the United States and Italy. These four entities contributed with joint efforts to make the dam safer, forging trust and collaboration on multiple levels. The Mosul Dam serves as a model for international water cooperation, illustrating the potential for large-scale infrastructure projects to contribute to peace and stability. The reassessment provided in this study advocates for a more nuanced understanding of the Mosul Dam, recognizing its pivotal contributions to water security and international cooperation, which are essential for the region’s sustainable development and beyond.

Speaker Bio

Filippo Verre (PHD, MPS, MA, BA, LLB) works as a Post - Doc researcher at Lund University at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES). He holds a PhD in Geopolitics obtained at the University of Pisa and is the President of AB AQUA - Think Tank di Idro-Strategia, Italy's first hydro-strategy think tank. Previously, he graduated in Law (LLB, 2015) and Political Science (BA, 2016). He subsequenlty completed his postgraduate studies in Oxford, where he obtained a Master of Arts (MA, 2016) in International Studies - International Relations from Oxford Brookes University. Afterwards, he studied in Rome at the SIOI (Italian Society for International Organization), where he obtained a Master Degree (MPS, 2017) in Diplomatic and Economic Studies. His main research interests concern the geopolitics of water, Asian geo-economic structure and sub-saharan and Middle Eastern political history.

This seminar is part of the CMES Seminar Series.