Joshua Newton, PhD Candidate, USA
Joshua Newton is currently a PhD student at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in the area of International Environmental Policy, International Water Resources Policy and International Conflict Resolution and Negotiation. He is focusing particularly on the prevention and resolution of water disputes. His many accomplishments, whether academic or professional, coherently reflect his passion for water policy and dispute resolution. While Joshua nurtures a global perspective on water issues, his regional concentration is Latin America, an area in which he has an abiding interest and where he has lived for over three years.
Since childhood Joshua has been in love with the great outdoors. Studying environmental policy was a natural progression stemming from this passion. He pursued his area of choice, environmental studies, at the Friends World Program of Long Island University. This program was unique in that it gave him substantial international exposure allowing him to spend three of his four years in the program abroad and complete five internships.
It was in his second of two internships in Mendoza, Argentina during this time at Friends World that he stumbled upon his first experience in the field of water and had the opportunity to critically evaluate an ongoing water project with its many dimensions, both political and socio-economic.
Joshua, while explaining his zeal for the subject, says "I like the interdisciplinary nature of the field…that there are political, legal, economic and many other considerations to be taken into account while weighing options for resolution." Ten years ago there was a lot of media coverage on the issue that the next war would be fought over water. Through his work Joshua hopes to avoid this.
After graduating from his undergraduate program, Joshua received the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship. His projects thereafter were also in the field of water conflict and cooperation. He became acquainted with the Silala River Basin dispute between Chile and Bolivia at this time and this formed the basis of his Master’s thesis research. Despite the passage of ten years since the onset of the dispute, the countries have still not come to an agreement on the nature of the river. Joshua mentions that there are other problems which exacerbate the situation, for instance, the lack of official diplomatic relations between the two countries impedes dialogue.
When he speaks of his thesis topic, it becomes evident just how he merges his two areas of interests, water policy and conflict resolution. He explains that "I wish to look at how to use negotiation theory to arrive at different solutions to resolve the Silala River Basin dispute." He also mentions that solving this dispute may well set the ball rolling to solve other disputes between the two countries. "The problem…" he says with respect to effective research "is that governments tend to be very closed when it comes to divulging information with respect to water as they often consider that information sensitive to national security." At present therefore, he is compelled to rely more on secondary research.
The Fletcher School was a natural choice for Joshua when considering graduate school options. "Having spent my undergraduate years romping around the world and working on my own in different countries, I sought a school that would allow me to be independent. Fletcher was one of the few graduate schools which came close to giving the kind of independence and flexibility I was looking for." At Fletcher Joshua completed his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy. When he first arrived at Fletcher he wanted to diversify from his focus on water, but realized within a few months that water was his calling. His wish to delve further into the subject led him to pursue a PhD in the area. He praises the flexibility of the curriculum at Fletcher, saying "You can enter interested in a field like water for which Fletcher offers no specific classes, but it allows you to have that focus and facilitates your study in the area."
His PhD research will focus on examining from a political science perspective, how nations cooperate in sharing groundwater. As nations have developed or become more water stressed, they have been looking to groundwater to meet their requirements. Existing literature has almost exclusively focused on surface water and little analysis has been done to explore the sharing of groundwater.
Joshua is currently busy preparing for a conference he is organizing, "The Young Professionals Forum on Transboundary Waters," scheduled to take place in 2007 in Scotland. The conference will bring together seventy-five young professionals from around the world to take part in capacity building exercises in international water law, conflict resolution and institution building. Having worked on this conference for more than a year, Joshua is very excited about its launch.
After completing his PhD, Joshua wishes to work with multilateral international organizations or an international NGO. He is particularly interested in the UN, especially in agencies such as UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP, as he truly believes in their mission. In his work in the public sector or the non profit sector he wishes to liaise with government officials to promote co-operation and use his skills in international conflict resolution and negotiation towards resolving water disputes.
While deliberating on life at Fletcher, Joshua says that "My two years doing the MALD degree were probably the best years of my life. You work hard, but you play hard as well. You learn a lot and you have fun because people here are so interesting and knowledgeable. Friends made here are friends you will have for the rest of your life. Fletcher’s sense of community is very strong." Joshua is a very active participant in the Fletcher social scene. Apart from academics, Joshua’s interests include mountaineering/hiking, traveling and reading.
Joie Chowdhury, MALD 2008