III. Uluslararası KOP Bölgesel Kalkınma Sempozyumu, Aksaray, Turkey, 22 - 24 October 2015, pp.87-92
Climate change became a prominent subject in international relations. This study aims to analyse how climate change took part in the international relations (IR) literature, and to reveal approaches of academicians about the relationship between climate change, especially water scarcity, and armed conflict and cooperation. At this point, determining the scenarios estimating the likelihood of armed conflict or cooperation related to water scarcity is the crucial component of this analysis. This study, therefore, seeks to find a possible way to overcome armed conflicts in river basins. In accordance with this purpose, by reviewing the literature on river basin conflictand cooperation, it is found that even thought here is a risk of armed conflict due to water scarcity, it is possible to form and develop lasting cooperation by establishing organisations or forming agreements. It is also suggested that increasing information exchange, adopting dispute settlement mechanisms, embedding enforcement provisions, forming allocation mechanisms and considering redistribution of benefits are thees sential methods in promoting cooperation at these levels.