Sambandet mellan import av virtuellt vatten och säkerhetisering: En komparativ studie mellan fallen Israel och Egypten

Sammanfattning: The question this study sought out to answer was: What is the possible correlation between high and low imports of virtual water and degree of securitization in Egypt and Israel? Virtual water, e.g. the water embedded in goods and services, can be imported to water scarce countries to mitigate the domestic water use. For the years 1996-2005 Israel imported a great amount of virtual water compared to Egypt. We have done a comparative qualitative discourse analyses for the years 2007-2010 for the mentioned states to identify a general trend in the discourse held by political elites in accordance with the securitization theory developed by Buzan et al. Another theory used to identify the correlation between the analyzed variables is the resource scarcity thesis, developed by Homer-Dixon and the Toronto group. We found out that Egypt’s political elite frames the water issue in a more securitized manner than the political elite of Israel and the final conclusion is that a correlation between high import of virtual water and a low degree of securitization can be argued for on several levels. Although this is a preliminary conclusion based on a limited study it can be used as a base for further studies aimed to fusion security studies with a typically economic matter such as a virtual water import.