Ph.D. Research Profile - Mehmet Ugur
Mehmet Ugur wants to do his part in improving the lives of people in his native Turkey and its neighbors in the Middle East.
“I want to contribute to the peace and security in the Middle East by focusing on one issue and saying something different,” said Ugur.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey. After graduation, he initially went to work in the private sector for an import/export company that worked with the UN food program. Although he enjoyed the job, the Turkish hyperinflation of the early 1990s made it increasingly difficult to operate the company, so he refocused his desire to work in academia.
Ugur went back to school to earn a master’s degree in Security Studies from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. While writing his masters thesis, he heard about an opportunity to take a nationwide exam sponsored by the Turkish Ministry of Education. The highest scoring candidates would be given the opportunity to continue their studies abroad. To his pleasant surprise, Ugur earned the second highest score among all the test takers in the country for that year and was awarded a scholarship. Because he had worked with a former student of Professor Pfaltzgraff, he was familiar with Fletcher’s strong tradition in the international security studies field.
His MALD thesis examined myriad issues associated with transboundary natural resources. His PhD dissertation, titled “Developing Effective Transboundary Water Resources Regimes: The Tigris-Euphrates Basin”, examines the issue more deeply using the conflict concerning the Tigris-Euphrates River. He enjoys the multidisciplinary aspect of his research which combines environmental, legal, and international relations aspects and theories. He also finds it rewarding to contribute to the betterment of the Middle East.
“There are a lot of high profile problems currently, and this is not one of them,” said Ugur. “It is a low profile issue. But eventually it’s going to be a high profile issue.”
The upstream country in the case of the Tigris-Euphrates River is Turkey, which is very mountainous and relatively water abundant for Middle Eastern standards. The waters then flow into Syria which is arid, and onto Iraq, eventually flowing into the Persian Gulf.
Following the oil spikes of the 1970s, Turkey began damming the river to harness hydropower to fuel its rapid development. It was also able to elevate the level of the water to help irrigate Turkey’s poorer southeastern region, which helped in the economic development of this area populated mostly by the Kurdish citizens of the Turkish Republic.
“One of the reasons the Turkish government did this was to help fix the economic imbalance between different regions in Turkey, and to earn the hearts of its Kurdish citizens back,” said Ugur. “When you try to do this, you take everything from a national perspective and you falsely assume that water just stays where it is.”
Even though he credits all the good intentions of his government, Ugur is concerned with the unintended consequences of damming this river system with a unilateral approach.
“People in the Fertile Crescent have been using these rivers for irrigation for thousands of years,” said Ugur. “These waters are their lifeline, so it is important to address these downstream issues while developing the southeastern plains.”
While his MALD thesis was more focused on the political aspect of transboundary water issues, his PhD dissertation incorporates much more theory. He believes there is a trend in world politics toward more legalized international relations. Therefore, the government in Ankara should, he argues, adopt a multilateral approach for an optimum ‘win-win’ result for the riparians as well as for the river basin.
His interest in the issue stems from a Tigris-Euphrates River panel he attended at a conference during his first year in Ankara.
“Turkish speakers talked about why Turkey needed the waters, and they were right. The Syrians and Iraqis were saying basically the same thing [about their reasons for needing the waters], and they too were right,” said Ugur.
But Ugur also realized there was something wrong. The needs of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria equaled roughly double all the water that the river could provide.
In addition to the security and international relations ramifications, Ugur also wanted to know more about what should be done to avoid the total collapse of this river’s ecosystem.
“I decided to take up the case not as a Turk, but as a social scientist,” said Ugur. “I hope to find a different perspective that might bring together all relevant viewpoints.”
The issue of sovereignty also plays a large role in Ugur’s work. His first challenge was to frame the debate about sovereignty in a less rigid way.
“What could make Turkey give up some of its resources? Does it mean that they are giving up sovereignty? Is that a problem? Or is the problem how we understand sovereignty?” Ugur said.
Ugur argues that there are multiple ways to look at sovereignty. He believes that the real question is how a country defines its national interests.
“If we take Turkish interests as having a peaceful neighborhood to lift up the overall standard of living, then we have to have good relations with neighboring countries,” said Ugur. “Having enemies or dissatisfied neighbors on the borders will not allow us to reach that goal.”
Ugur also uses concepts from global governance called “international regime theory” to address the question of the Tigris-Euphrates Basin. The analysis involves interplay of the knowledge, power and interest-based schools. Ugur believes that there is a trend heading away from the power-based school, although he concedes that the power element is in no way irrelevant.
“We are still in the Westphalian system, but there are some complicated issues that the definition of sovereignty should not stay static in the 17th century,” said Ugur. “It must be a dynamic idea.”
Ugur thinks that the current Turkish government has created a more sophisticated foreign policy that has allowed the country to start on a road to better relations with its neighbors, both politically and economically.
“I hope that this line of thinking will help us to solve the problems with our neighbors, and if I can contribute to that I will be more than happy,” said Ugur. “Our first direction is still the West, but we should also look towards the East and to the South.”
Beginning in 2007, Ugur will teach at a university in Turkey as a professor of international law and international relations. He likes geography and history and also enjoys helping others learn. He envisions a future for himself as an advisor to the Turkish government.