Water Nationalism, Climate Anxiety, and the Myth of the Coming Water Wars

Feb 18, 2026 | Jeremy Allouche
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Will future wars be fought over water? Global policymakers, politicians and the media promote a sense of catastrophism about the impact of climate change on cross-border water management between countries. These ‘climate water war’ narratives promote anxiety over water scarcity and often surface when droughts hit the headlines, but how likely are climate-change-induced water wars to occur in the future? Recent events suggest the story is more complicated—and far less apocalyptic than the popular scarcity narratives imply.