Journal - Orient Online

Climate Change and Water Scarcity in MENA

Patricia K. McCormick

Climate change is deepening water scarcity across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), threatening livelihoods, governance, and stability. This paper examines how drought, migration, and riparian basin conflicts interact with neoliberal agricultural and trade practices to intensify regional inequalities. It argues that the combined effects of heat, drought, and unsustainable water use have transformed scarcity into a catalyst for social unrest and displacement. The study concludes that only through regional cooperation, early-warning drought systems, and sustainable resource management can MENA states build resilience against cascading climate risks.

Patricia K. McCormick views the telecommunication and space sectors as integrated within a broader economic and political context at both the national and international levels. She is a member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and presently serves as an Associate Professor at Wayne State University.

Purchase the article here:

7,90 €Add to basket

Access article with subscription:

Enter

Log in or purchase a subscription with archive access to read this article online.

Unlocking the Sahel, Reconfiguring the Western Mediterranean: Morocco’s Atlantic Initiative as an Integration Corridor

Amine Ghoulidi and Rida Lyammouri

Amine Ghoulidi and Rida Lyammouri

The Western Mediterranean’s exposure to the Sahel is usually framed in terms of security spillovers and crisis management. This paper argues that this framing misreads how Sahelian access conditions now shape Mediterranean integration. Morocco’s Atlantic Initiative is a state-led corridor strategy combining Atlantic port infrastructure, inland transit routes, and energy systems to connect landlocked Sahelian economies to maritime access through Moroccan territory. Examining this initiative, the paper shows how Sahelian access conditions now shape routing decisions, risk pricing, and gateway hierarchies inside the Western Mediterranean itself. The Atlantic Initiative functions not as a development scheme or a basin institution, but as a corridor architecture designed to reduce the structural penalty of landlockedness and convert hinterland access into Mediterranean-relevant trade and energy flows. Its credibility rests on three elements: a scale-setting Atlantic gateway anchored at Dakhla, transit governance through Mauritania as a non-bypassable hinge, and demonstrable Sahel-side demand for diversified external access. Where these elements align, corridor reliability alters planning horizons and competitive dynamics well before trade volumes visibly rebase. The paper concludes that Mediterranean integration is increasingly produced through corridors that originate beyond the basin and re-enter it through gateway states.

Rida Lyammouri is a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS). He is also a senior West Africa and Lake Chad Basin researcher and advisor, with expertise in regional conflicts,
violent extremism, climate change, migration, and trafficking. His research activities focus on
geopolitics and international relations in the West African Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, regions he
has worked on for 14 years, including in the field.

Amine Ghoulidi is the Convenor of the MENA Research Group at King’s College London, where
he is completing a PhD in geopolitics and security. Previously, Mr Ghoulidi worked in the political
risk practice of a global consulting firm and advised leading international organizations on illicit
transnational networks.

Purchase the article here:

7,90 €Add to basket

Access article with subscription:

Enter

Log in or purchase a subscription with archive access to read this article online.

The Journal for politics, economics, and culture of the Middle East published by the German Orient-Institute

Topics

Keywords

ORIENT I 2026 – Focus: The Mediterranean and the MENA Region

ORIENT IV 2025 – Focus: German Security Policy in the MENA region

Orient III 2025 – Focus: Health Systems and Public Health Challenges in the MENA Region

Orient II 2025 – US elections and the MENA region: Changing foreign policy and security landscape

Orient I 2025 – Strategic Engagement: China’s Role and Impact in the MENA Region

Orient IV 2024: Migration trends in the MENA region

Climate Change and Water Scarcity in MENA

Purchase the article here:

Access article with subscription:

Mediterranean Migration after WW II: Bridge or Barrier?

Purchase the article here:

Access article with subscription:

The Mediterranean’s Shifting Tides: An Updated View on Maritime Security in the MENA–Europe Nexus

Purchase the article here:

Access article with subscription:

The Real Mediterranean’ in the Middle East: Real Estate and Imaginaries of Urban Development

Purchase the article here:

Access article with subscription:

Unlocking the Sahel, Reconfiguring the Western Mediterranean: Morocco’s Atlantic Initiative as an Integration Corridor

Purchase the article here:

Access article with subscription:

Governing Asymmetry in Euro-Mediterranean Relations. Stratification, Hierarchy and the Pact for the Mediterranean

Purchase the article here:

Access article with subscription: