Kalpakian tests the dominant assumption that water disputes cause violent conflict between states and other actors in world politics. Using case studies from arid regions to bias the effort towards this assumption, he finds that issues related to identity have been the real source of conflict in the river basins studied. This essential volume: - challenges conventional assumptions about water and conflict - displaces the state as the sole actor in violent conflict - reveals the link between conflict and identity This book invites the reader to address the complexity in the relationships binding peoples and states in an international river basin.