Ancient Biomolecules Unravel our History: A Technical Update with Examples from the Middle East

Context: The study of ancient biomolecules represents a useful tool to address questions related to human history. Objective: This manuscript provides an overview of the major categories of ancient biomolecules, highlighting their potentialities when applied to research. Methods: This study gathered knowledge from recently published papers on paleogenomics, paleoproteomics, ancient lipids and stable isotope analyses with the aim of providing a technical and historical background on ancient biomolecules, and examples of their application in the Arabian Peninsula and Middle East in general. Results: The progress seen in the past decade with regard to the study of ancient biomolecules has led to a dramatic expansion of the studies that apply those analyses. Increasing attention has also been paid to the development and optimization of protocols aimed at reducing and/or preventing the risk of contamination. While extensively applied to Western areas, the study of ancient biomolecules in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula has been limited. Conclusions: Research on ancient biomolecules represents the most valuable source of information to understand our evolutionary past at an inconceivable level of detail, especially when applied to areas so far underrepresented in this field, such as the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula in particular

Bioarchaeology-related studies in the Arabian Gulf: potentialities and shortcomings

Archaeological studies provide a powerful tool to understand the prehistoric societies, especially when combined to cutting-edge morphological and molecular anthropological analyses, allowing reconstructing past population dynamics, admixture events, and socio-cultural changes. Despite the advances achieved in the last decades by archaeological studies worldwide, several regions of the World have been spared from this scientific improvement due to various reasons. The Arabian Gulf represents a unique ground to investigate, being the passageway for human migrations and one of the hypothesized areas in which Neanderthal introgression occurred. A number of archaeological sites are currently present in the Arabian Gulf and have witnessed the antiquity and the intensiveness of the human settlements in the region. Nevertheless, the archaeological and anthropological investigation in the Gulf is still in its infancy. Data collected through archaeological studies in the area have the potential to help answering adamant questions of human history from the beginning of the structuring of genetic diversity in human species to the Neolithisation process. This review aims at providing an overview of the archaeological studies in the Arabian Gulf with special focus to Qatar, highlighting potentialities and shortcomings

Once the shovel hits the ground : Evaluating the management of complex implementation processes of public-private partnership infrastructure projects with qualitative comparative analysis

Much attention is being paid to the planning of public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects. The subsequent implementation phase – when the contract has been signed and the project ‘starts rolling’ – has received less attention. However, sound agreements and good intentions in project planning can easily fail in project implementation. Implementing PPP infrastructure projects is complex, but what does this complexity entail? How are projects managed, and how do public and private partners cooperate in implementation? What are effective management strategies to achieve satisfactory outcomes? This is the fi rst set of questions addressed in this thesis. Importantly, the complexity of PPP infrastructure development imposes requirements on the evaluation methods that can be applied for studying these questions. Evaluation methods that ignore complexity do not create a realistic understanding of PPP implementation processes, with the consequence that evaluations tell us little about what works and what does not, in which contexts, and why. This hampers learning from evaluations. What are the requirements for a complexity-informed evaluation method? And how does qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) meet these requirements? This is the second set of questions addressed in this thesis

Peace Science and the Hydropolitical Conflicts in Central Asia: The Rogun Dam Conflict between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

This conference paper seeks to explore the potential contributions of the peace science to the hydropolitical conflicts in Central Asia by focusing on the case of the Rogun Dam conflict between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In particular, the conference paper seeks to identify the opportunity structures available to the conflicting parties through a mixed methodology of using quantitative and qualitative data about the hydropower resources as well as water resources for agricultural use as well as the relevant countries policy options and peaceful settlement alternatives. The existing literature on water conflicts mostly focuses on water scarcity for assessing the risk of occurrence of water-related conflicts between the riparians in the transboundary river basins. More recently, the number of studies combining the physical and human-related indicators for analyzing the potential risks of hydropolitical conflicts. The conference paper suggests that based on the quantified data about water and energy nexus in the Ragun Dam area the diverse interests of the Central Asian countries in using water resources for electricity production and agricultural use set them against each other in a conflictual relationship. This is quite clear in the case of the Rogun Dam conflict between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The conference paper argues that the changes in Uzbekistan’s position on this conflict from a conflictual to a more conciliatory one could be explained with the peace science approach and data about the hydropower resources as well as water resources for agricultural use as well as the relevant countries policy options and peaceful settlement alternatives. This paper hopes to contribute to the literature by including concepts of political science and environmental economics. Various databases are used for this purpose. The paper derives water scarcity data from the AQUEDUCT database of the World Resources Institute, while the Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme of the Global Environmental Facility is employed for the following indicators: human water stress, agricultural water stress, ecosystem impacts from dams, economic dependence on water resources, enabling environment and legal framework. Hydropower data is gathered from the International Renewable Energy Agency’s Renewable Electricity Capacity and Generation Statistics as well as from the International Energy Agency. The agricultural data are compiled from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the FAOSTAT database. Specifically, the International Cotton Advisory Committee’s Data Portal will be employed for cotton agriculture data of Uzbekistan.Kapadokya Üniversites

Introduction

This book deals with the inversely-related interdependencies of the Eurasian region’s water, energy and environmental matters. The inversely-related interdependency between energy and the environment is more visible in water resources management since water is a central component of both the ecological system and hydropower production systems. In fact, increases in the use of energy and water resources tend to result in the intensification of environmental problems. The adoption of more effective environmental protection policies requires a reduction in energy production and consumption, and this inverse relationship makes achieving sustainability –a critical criterion in any long-term development strategy – an even more difficult target.Kapadokya Üniversites

Water, Energy and Environment Nexus

The water-energy-environment nexus focuses on the natural and technical phenomenon at a system level, suggesting that water, energy and environment rely on each other. The nexus as an analytical tool supports scientific research and is being increasingly embraced as a governance framework by politicians and decision-makers. Under the increasing impacts of the climate change, the energy sector and companies both influence and are being influenced by environmental politics and policymaking. Environmental policymaking, on the other hand, is closely linked to international agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, regulations such as the EU’s Green Deal, and increasing social pressure. This chapter reviews the nexus approach and its impacts on policymaking, arguing that water, environment and energy issues should be evaluated as a whole. In this respect, this chapter provides a framework for the book, in which the nexus issues are discussed based on case studies selected from the Eurasia region.Kapadokya Üniversites

Water, Energy and Environment in Eurasia

The Eurasian region has been characterized by growing water, energy and environmental challenges. This book intends to provide answers to the following key questions: What are the major conceptual issues with regards to the water, energy and environment nexus in Eurasia? What are the key challenges and drawbacks faced by the countries in the Eurasian region in responding to the nexus issues? How could regional cooperation be developed so as to mitigate nexus-related sustainability problems? What are the future implications of the current challenges for the regional and global environment? This book highlights the analytical benefits of employing the nexus approach in studying the complex dynamics of water, energy and environment in Eurasia. The nexus approach assumes that the inversely-related interdependency between energy and the environment is more evident in water-related issues. The book brings together the original academic contributions of distinguished experts who have been studying various aspects of the nexus of water, energy and the environment in the Eurasian region from technical and socio-economic to diplomatic aspects. The book is composed of three parts which explore these issues systematically in terms of the employed conceptual framework and the levels of analysis: The first part elaborates on the conceptual framework, the second part focuses on the national level of analysis, while the last part deals with the regional level of analysis.Oktay F. Tanrisever is Professor of International Relations and the Chairperson of the Center for Black Sea and Central Asia (KORA) at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara-Turkey. He has specialized in energy, water and environmental diplomacy; transnational and regional security and peace-building in Eurasia.Halil Burak Sakal is Associate Professor of International Relations at Cappadocia University, Nevşehir, Turkey. His academic works and research interests include water, energy and environment; sustainable tourism development; and economic and political issues and historiography in Eurasia.The editors of this book co-authored Development of Hydropower Sector and Its Impact on Energy-Environment Nexus in Central Asia published by Akhmet Yassawi University, Eurasian Research Institute in 2017

The review of the water-electricity generation conflicts in Central Asia: The case of Rogun Dam

This chapter explores the potential contributions of peace science to the hydropolitical conflicts in Central Asia by focusing on the case of the conflict over the Rogun Dam between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In particular, the chapter seeks to identify the opportunity structures available to the conflicting parties through a mixed methodology involving the use of both quantitative and qualitative data about the hydropower resources, the water resources for agricultural use, the policy options of the two countries and the peaceful settlement alternatives. It is argued here that the change in Uzbekistan’s position on this conflict, from conflictual to more conciliatory, could be explained through an analysis of the available data related to hydropower resources and the water resources for agricultural use, as well as the relevant countries policy options and peaceful settlement alternatives.Kapadokya Üniversites

Conclusion

This edited book brings together the invaluable works of distinguished experts related to various aspects of the nexus of water, energy and the environment in the Eurasian region. Although the individual chapters offer their own conclusions on the specific characteristics of the nexus in the Eurasian region, this Conclusion discusses their significance in a wider regional context and their broader implications for conceptual and empirical studies into the subject.Kapadokya Üniversites