Profile
 

PhD: received from King’s College London, Department of Geography, 2006. 

Prof Mark Zeitoun is Director General of the Geneva Water Hub and Professor of Water Diplomacy at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. He has led multiple research and water supply projects, and supported water negotiations throughout Western Asia and Africa. His research focuses on international transboundary water conflict and cooperation, the influence of armed conflict on water services, and the links between water, conflict, and health. He has consulted for a wide range of humanitarian and development organisations, and authored dozens of books and journal articles. His most recent book Reflections: Understanding our Use and Abuse of Water was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. 

THEMATIC EXPERTISE
 

• Water management
• Armed conflicts, violence
• Food security
• Laws of war
• Extractive economies, commodities & natural resources
• Sustainability, sustainable development & SDGs
• Global health diplomacy, global health governance
• Urban & rural worlds
• Climate change & natural disasters
• Development, cooperation, aid policies

Current research project
 

Prof Zeitoun is currently leading interdisciplinary research on transboundary water conflict and cooperation along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the reverberating effects of armed conflict and sanctions on water systems and people’s health. 
 
 

SELECTION OF Publications
 

• Zeitoun, M. (2023) Reflections: Understanding our use and abuse of water. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Zeitoun, Mark (2008) Power and Water in the Middle East - The Hidden Politics of the Palestinian-Israeli Water Conflict. London, UK: I.B. Tauris.
• Zeitoun, Mark and Michael Talhami (2017). The impact of explosive weapons on urban services: direct and reverberating effects across space and time. International Review of the Red Cross 98(1 Special Issue on War in Cities): 53-70.
• Zeitoun, Mark, Naho Mirumachi (2008). Transboundary Water Interaction I: Reconsidering Conflict and Cooperation, International Environmental Agreements 8: 297 – 316. [cited by 110 (Sept 2014)]
• Zeitoun, Mark and Jeroen Warner (2006) Hydro-Hegemony: A Framework for Analysis of Transboundary Water Conflicts. Water Policy 8 (2006): 435-460. [cited by 297 (Nov 2015)]

See cv for the full list.