The World Bank and Negotiating the Red Sea and Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project

In the 1990s, the World Bank underwent a “greening” process to make it more environmentally conscious, inclusive, transparent, and accountable. Consequently, the Bank has become preoccupied with compliance with its procedures during negotiations while neglecting the role of politics. Through a focus on process, the Bank discounted its role as a mediator, creating incentives for a stakeholder to assume the role. The stakeholder’s own vested interests in outcomes can throw into question the integrity of the process. To demonstrate this argument we examine the World Bank’s efforts to implement a feasibility study for Red Sea and Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. The Bank’s focus on process and neglect of its traditional mediation function led to protracted negotiations over the feasibility study that were mired in politics and left the weakest stakeholder with only symbolic depictions of environmental cooperation rather than actual peace dividends.