One of the standard responses to eco-crisis and environmental security narratives is that the environment can be a source of cooperation as much as of conflict, of amity, not just of enmity. This chapter interrogates this liberal rejoinder to Malthusian and eco-pessimist reasoning. The chapter critiques functionalist and related accounts of peacemaking via water cooperation and argues that water is neither innately cooperation-inducing nor particularly important within peacemaking today. It shows, moreover, that because peace processes are themselves often deeply problematic – in extreme, reproducing or radicalising pre-peacemaking divisions and attendant patterns of conflict, appropriation and inequality – so the same applies to peacebuilding and cooperation relating specifically to water. These arguments are developed through analysis of the Israeli–Palestinian Oslo peace process, the Annan process on Cyprus and Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Water scarcities, the chapter shows, have not historically been a significant force for peace; by extension, it is argued in conclusion, climate change–induced scarcities are unlikely to have such effects either.

Chapter 2 maps out major theories in peace and conflict studies dealing with the interaction between nature, war, and peace. While acknowledging that the field is characterised by a broad diversity of research traditions and methodological approaches, the aim of the chapter is to offer a review of the research that has had most influence on international policies and legal development. Although legal scholars often think of this literature as monolithic, what will emerge from this chapter is that there is a vivid debate on the linkages between environment and conflict, which is explained by the different underlying paradigms and concepts. It is important to pay attention to the contested nature of these analytical frameworks to better understand (and challenge) the approaches that emerged at the international level. The second part of the chapter introduces environmental justice as an alternative framework to move beyond certain problematic assumptions about environmental scarcity/abundance that have fed into international law. Environmental justice perspectives will be used in subsequent chapters to think about justice accordingly and beyond international law.