When Israeli forces invaded Lebanon in June 1982, some observers claimed that one of Israel's objectives was to seize control of the Litani River. At the time, I found the allegation intriguing. Why would a state launch such a costly military operation for the sake of a river that, even by regional standards, was not particularly abundant? What Israeli national security concerns could possibly be epitomized by a Lebanese river? When I began graduate school at Princeton University in the fall of that year, I told my teacher, Charles Issawi, that I was interested in exploring the role — if indeed there was one — that rivers, and water in general, have played in the ongoing and unresolved Arab—Israeli confrontation. He chuckled and said: “That should keep you busy for a while.” Little did I know that ten years later I would still be studying the complex relationship between riparian dispute and inter-state conflict.

No doubt my initial curiosity with the “lure of the Litani” was quickly dwarfed by the larger, and far more engaging political issues raised by the experience in the Jordan River basin. For one, it became clear to me that there was, indeed, an intimate link between water resources and national security.