Hussam Hussein is a Departmental Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR), Oxford Martin Fellow in Water Diplomacy, member of the Middle East Centre, Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, and member of the Leadership Team of the Oxford Water Network. His principal research interests are concerned with the role of discourses in shaping water policies in the Middle East, transboundary water governance, critical hydropolitics, and the political economy of water resources in arid and semi-arid regions. He is the author of several articles on water politics, and his work has appeared on several academic journals, including Geoforum, Mediterranean Politics, Contemporary Levant, Water International, Water Policy, and Water Alternatives.
Dr Hussein is Principal investigator of the John Fell funded project "Analysing change in transboundary freshwater agreements", which investigates the role of the political context in answering how and why transboundary freshwater agreements change over time. He is also a Research Fellow of the Oxford Martin School-funded programme on 'Transboundary Resource Management', which is exploring the scope for cross-border co-operation on natural resource management in the eastern Nile River Basin and the Jordan River Basin. See the Oxford Martin School website for more details.
Dr Hussein has held fellowships at the American University of Beirut, at the University of Kassel , and is currently fellow of the Young Academy of Sustainability at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on “Cities of Tomorrow”.
He obtained his PhD degree from the School of International Development, University of East Anglia with a thesis investigating the discourse of water scarcity in the case of Jordan, and its impacts on transboundary water governance. His fieldwork has been funded by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS), and by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).
He obtained his BA and MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Trieste – Gorizia (Italy), he studied Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS, University of London, and obtained an MA in Interdisciplinary European Studies from the College of Europe.
In addition to his academic career, he worked on issues of sustainable development and environmental governance for the Italian Embassy in Jordan, the European Parliament, the International Finance Corporation - World Bank, UNICEF, and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR).
Research
His research focuses on:
- Hydropolitics (transboundary water governance, conflict and cooperation over shared water resources)
- Role of discourses and narratives in IR
- Construction of (water) scarcities
- Climate change politics
- Environment and Climate Change
Teaching
- MPhil in IR core course “The Development of the International System and Contemporary Debates in International Relations Theory”
- UG in PPE course: “211 Politics in the Middle East”
Publications
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Hussein, H., (2022), Russia is weaponizing water in its invasion of Ukraine, Correspondence, Nature, 603, 793
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Hamidov, A., K. Daedlow, H. Webber, H. Hussein, I. Abdurahmanov, A. Dolidudko, A. Seerat, U. Solieva, T. Woldeyohanes, and K. Helming. (2022), Operationalizing water-energy-food nexus research for sustainable development in social-ecological systems: an interdisciplinary learning case in Central Asia. Ecology and Society 27(1):12
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Vojno, N., ter Horst, R., Hussein, H., Nolden, T., Badawy, A., Goubert, A., Sharipova, B., Pedrero, F., Peters S., Damkjaer, S. (2022), Beyond barriers: the fluid roles young people adopt in water conflict and cooperation, Water International
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Wheeler, K., Hussein, H. (2021), Water research and nationalism in the post-truth era, Water International
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Al-Saidi, M., Hussein, H., (2021), The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and COVID-19: Towards a Systematization of Impacts and Responses, Science of the Total Environment, 146529
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El Nour, S., Elaydi, H., & Hussein, H. (2021) Thirst revolution: practices of contestation and mobilisation in rural Egypt, Contemporary Levant
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Donoso, G.; Barron, J.; Uhlenbrook, S.; Hussein, H.; Choi, G. (2021) Science—Policy Engagement to Achieve “Water for Society—Including All”. Water, 13, 246. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13030246
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Hussein, H., Conker, A., Grandi, M. (2020), Small is beautiful but not trendy: Understanding the allure of big hydraulic works in the Euphrates-Tigris and Nile waterscapes, Mediterranean Politics, DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2020.1799167
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Liptrot, T. and Hussein, H. (2020). Between regulation and targeted expropriation: Rural-to-urban groundwater reallocation in Jordan. Water Alternatives, 13(3): 864-885
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Sandri, S.; Hussein, H.; Alshyab, N. (2020), Sustainability of the Energy Sector in Jordan: Challenges and Opportunities. Sustainability, 12, 10465.
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Hussein, H., Greco, F. (2020), How will the COVID-19 pandemic impact food security and virtual water “trade”?, Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, Opinion Paper
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Eufemia, L., & Hussein, H. (2020). How did the COVID-19 crisis relate to meeting global climate targets for 2020?, Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, Opinion Paper
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Hussein, H., & Lambert, L. A. (2020). A Rentier State under Blockade: Qatar’s Water-Energy-Food Predicament from Energy Abundance and Food Insecurity to a Silent Water Crisis. Water, 12(4), 1051.
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Riad, P., Graefe, S., Hussein, H., Buerkert, A. (2020), Landscape transformation processes in two large and two small cities in Egypt and Jordan over the last five decades using remote sensing data, Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 197, May 2020, 103766
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Hussein, H.; Natta, A.; Yehya, A.A.K.; Hamadna, B. Syrian Refugees, Water Scarcity, and Dynamic Policies: How Do the New Refugee Discourses Impact Water Governance Debates in Lebanon and Jordan? Water 2020, 12, 325.
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Conker, A., & Hussein, H. (2019). Hydropolitics and issue-linkage along the Orontes River Basin: an analysis of the Lebanon–Syria and Syria–Turkey hydropolitical relations. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 1-19.
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Benedict, S., Hussein, H., (2019), An Analysis of Water Awareness Campaign Messaging in the Case of Jordan: Water Conservation for State Security, Water, 11(6)
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Talozi, S., Altz-Stamm, A., Hussein, H., Reich, P., (2019), What constitutes an equitable water share? A reassessment of equitable apportionment in the Jordan–Israel water agreement 25 years later, Water Policy
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Hussein, H., (2019), “An analysis of the framings of water scarcity in the Jordanian National Water Strategy”, Viewpoint, Water International
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Da Silva L.P., Hussein, H. (2019), Production of scale in regional hydropolitics: An analysis of La Plata River Basin and the Guarani Aquifer System in South America, Geoforum, 99: 42-53
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Conker, A.; Hussein, H. (2019) Hydraulic Mission at Home, Hydraulic Mission abroad? Examining Turkey’s Regional ‘Pax-Aquarum’ and Its Limits. Sustainability, 11, 228.
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Odeh, T., Mohammad, A.H., Hussein, H., Ismail, M., Almomani, T., (2019), “Over-pumping of groundwater in Irbid governorate, northern Jordan: a conceptual model to analyze the effects of urbanization and agricultural activities on groundwater levels and salinity”, Environmental Earth Sciences, 78: 40
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Hussein, H.; Menga, F.; Greco, F. (2018) Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes. Sustainability, 10, 3640.
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Hussein, H., (2018), “Lifting the veil: Unpacking the discourse of water scarcity in Jordan”, Environmental Science and Policy, Vol. 89, 385-392
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Hussein, H., (2018), “Tomatoes, tribes, bananas, and Bedouins: a political economy analysis of the shadow state and of the politics of water in Jordan,” Environmental Science and Policy, Vol. 84, 170-176.
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Hussein, H., (2018), “The Guarani Aquifer System, highly present but not high profile: a hydropolitical analysis of transboundary groundwater governance”, Environmental Science and Policy, Vol. 83, 54-62.
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Hussein, H., (2018),”Yarmouk, Jordan, and Disi basins: examining the impact of the discourse of water scarcity in Jordan on transboundary water governance”, Mediterranean Politics.
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Mohammed A. H., Jung C., Odeh O., Hussein H. (corresponding author), (2018), “Understanding the impact of droughts in the Yarmouk Basin, Jordan: Monitoring droughts through meteorological and hydrological drought indices”, Arabian Journal of Geosciences, Vol. 11 (5), 103
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Hussein, H., (2017). “Whose ‘reality’? Discourses and hydropolitics along the Yarmouk River Basin”, Contemporary Levant.
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Hussein, H., & Grandi, M. (2017). Dynamic political contexts and power asymmetries: the cases of the Blue Nile and the Yarmouk Rivers. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 1-20.
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Hussein, H., (2017). “A critique of water scarcity discourses in educational policy and textbooks in Jordan”, The Journal of Environmental Education.
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Hussein, H. (2017). Politics of the Dead Sea Canal: a historical review of the evolving discourses, interests, and plans. Water International, 42(5), 527-542.
