408 CHAPTER ElEvEn ■ TransnaTional issues
of state interests, including economic development and national security. Climate
change is an issue that brings with it both very real threats and opportunities in the
twenty- first century, and any change will occur slowly.
natu ral resource Issues
The belief in the infinite supply of natu ral resources was not unreasonable throughout
much of human history, as people migrated to uninhabited or only sparsely inhabited
lands. Trading for natu ral resources became a mainstay of economic activity once people
recognized that natu ral resources were not uniformly distributed. Radical Marxist
thinkers challenged the assumption of an infinite supply of key economic resources.
According to Lenin, one of the reasons for imperialism was the inevitable quest for new
sources of raw materials. Cap i tal ist states depended on overseas markets and resources,
precisely because resources are unevenly distributed. From this assertion, Lenin also drew
his explanation for why imperialism necessarily resulted in war: cap i tal ist states would be
compelled to use armed force to secure the natu ral resources their factories demanded.
Nowadays, we are keenly aware that natu ral resources are limited and that states
do compete for resources. The example of freshwater, linked to pollution, climate
change, and population, helps highlight the importance of natu ral resources as a trans-
national issue.
Perhaps the most crucial transnational resource issue is freshwater because it is nec-
essary for all forms of life— human, animal, and plant. Only 3 percent of the earth’s
water is fresh (one- third lower than in 1970). Freshwater is po liti cal because it is unevenly
distributed; by 2025, two- thirds of the world’s people will live in countries facing
moderate or severe water- shortage prob lems. Others live in states with abundant supplies.
Water is unequally used: agriculture accounts for about two- thirds of the use of water,
industry about one- quarter, and human consumption slightly less than one- tenth. But
1.1 billion people have no access to improved drinking water, and one- third of those
live in Africa. Climate change is apt to make the situation worse since 70 percent of
the world’s total supply of freshwater is leaking away from the polar ice caps. And some
new technologies may be using freshwater faster than it is replenished, leading to unan-
ticipated consequences. The use of water as an aid to natu ral gas and petroleum extrac-
tion (a pro cess most commonly known as “fracking”) threatens shortages in some locales
and has caused contamination issues.
Three examples illustrate the international controversies and repercussions of the
limited supply of freshwater. The Middle East has long been a geographic area where
freshwater is a contested resource. Since the 1960s, Israel has adopted methods to pre-
serve scarce water resources, adopting drip irrigation, reusing treated house hold
sewage for agriculture, and piping water long distances from the north to the parched