Staff Profile

Dr Mohsen Nagheeby is PDRA in Water Security and Policy and co-leader of Water Governance Workstream at Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub. Within this multinational project, Mohsen is collaborating with several researchers and practitioners in Colombia, Ethiopia, India and Malaysia to offer in-depth insights into the issues surrounding water governance. 

Mohsen has over a decade of experience as a senior practitioner in the field of transboundary waters, leading several related multi-disciplinary research projects. He has an interdisciplinary academic and professional background. Mohsen has been involved in several consultancy projects, policy-making and negotiations processes related to transboundary water diplomacy in collaboration with national, regional and international organisations. 

Moving back to academia, Mohsen joined Prof. Alistair Rieu-Clarke at Northumbria School of Law in 2017 and completed his PhD research on "Anarchy and the Law of International Watercourses: Unpacking the role of equitable and reasonable utilisation principle in the pursuit of water conflict transformation".

Research Groups:

• Environment and Sustainability Politics Research Group
• Newcastle University Centre for Water (NUCoRE Water)

Mohsen's work experience and research interests have been mainly on the intersection of international law and politics surrounding transboundary waters. His interests focus on critical analysis of the role of (geo)political dynamics and legal norms in promoting hydropolitical relations towards equitable and sustainable manner. His geographic focus is on the Middle East and Central Asia, in particular, Iran and Afghanistan. His current line of thoughts focuses on "Decolonising Water Diplomacy".

I am currently leading two research projects:

• "Reunited in Dreams: Future Proofing the 1973 Helmand Water Treaty between Afghanistan and Iran", awarded through the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Scheme.
• "Decolonising Water Diplomacy", awarded the Science Policy Incubator Grant on Water Diplomacy from Geneva Water Hub.

• Transboundary Water Governance
• International Water Law
• Environmental Politics and Policy

• Articles

  • Nagheeby M. The Worst or the Best Treaty? Analysing the Equitable and Reasonable Utilization Principle in the Legal Arrangements of the Helmand River. Asian Journal of International Law 2024, 14(1), 25-44.
  • Mdee A, Ofori AD, Cohen J, Kjellén M, Rooney E, Singhal S, Amezaga J, Ankush, Figueroa-Benítez A, Gupta S, Tamiru Haile A, Haileslassie A, Kongo V, Kumar A, Mafla Noguera SA, Nagheeby M, Noor ZZ, Polaine X, Singh N, Sylvester R, Wan Ahmad Tajuddin WAN, Bin Yusop Z, Zúñiga-Barragán J. Obscuring Complexity and Performing Progress: Unpacking SDG Indicator 6.5.1 and the Implementation of IWRM. Water Alternatives 2024, 17(2), 391-414.
  • Ghoreishi SZ, Mianabadi H, Warner J, Nagheeby M, Vij S, Parvaresh Rizi A, Jafari M, Arfa-Fatolahkhani A. Maintaining status quo or realizing transformation in transboundary water conflicts? The power–interests–identity nexus in the Helmand river basin. Water International 2024, 49(5), 664-689.
  • Bantider A, Tadesse B, Mersha AN, Zeleke G, Alemayehu T, Nagheeby M, Amezaga J. Voices in Shaping Water Governance: Exploring Discourses in the Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia. Water 2023, 15(4), 803.
  • Nagheeby M, Rieu-Clarke A, McCaffrey S, Stephan RM, Cascão AE, McIntyre O, Nicol A, Meland A, Hussein H, De Châtel F, Tawfik R, Flowers C, Fantini E, Bateh F. Israel’s Weaponization of Water: An Urgent Call to Provide Full Access to Water Services in Gaza. FLOWs: The Water Governance Blog at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education 2023.
  • Wan Ahmad Tajuddin WAN, Zainon Noor Z, Weng Wai C, Aris A, Nagheeby M, Sa'adi Z, Amezaga J, Abdul Wahid NA. Framing a social network analysis approach to understanding reputational power in the water governance of Johor, Malaysia. Journal of Water and Climate Change 2023, 14(10), 3891-3911.
  • Nagheeby M. Exploring the rule of equitable and reasonable use on the Helmand river: new insights from interactional international law. The Journal of Water Law 2023, 28(1/2), 13-21.
  • Figueroa-Benitez A, Nagheeby M, Figueroa A, Amezaga J. Disrupted water governance in the shadows: Revealing the role of hidden actors in the Upper Cauca River Basin in Colombia. Frontiers in Water 2023, 5, 801171.
  • Nagheeby Mohsen, Amezaga Jaime. Decolonising water diplomacy and conflict transformation: from security-peace to equity-identity. Water Policy 2023, 25(8), 835–850.
  • Nagheeby M, Warner J. The 150-year itch: Afghanistan-Iran hydropolitics over the Helmand/Hirmand River. Water Alternatives 2022, 15(3), 551-573.
  • Nagheeby M. Resetting Expectations of International Water Law: The hidden and untapped magic of 'equity'. Global Water Forum 2022.
  • Nagheeby M. Ashraf Ghani’s ambitions to divert the Helmand River now serve his enemy, the Taliban: an International Law perspective. EJIL:Talk! 2022.
  • Nagheeby M. The Ghosts Around the Coasts: Anarchy and Equity in Transboundary River Basins. The Student Journal of Professional Practice and Academic Research 2020, 2(1).
  • Nagheeby M, Piri M, Faure M. The Legitimacy of Dam Development in International Watercourses: A Case Study of the Harirud River Basin. Transnational Environmental Law 2019, 8(2), 247-278.
  • Nagheeby M, Warner J. The geopolitical overlay of the hydropolitics of the Harirud River Basin. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 2018, 18(6), 839-860.

• Book Chapter

  • Nagheeby M, Rieu-Clarke A. Water diplomacy in the Helmand River Basin: Exploring the obstacles to cooperation within the shadow of anarchy. In: Kittikhoun A; Schmeier S, ed. River Basin Organizations in Water Diplomacy. Routledge, 2020.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Nagheeby M. Decolonizing Water Diplomacy: Toward Reduced Injustice. In: The Seventh Finnish Colloquium of Middle East and North African Studies. 2024, Tampere, Finland: Finnish Institute in the Middle East (FIME).
  • Nagheeby Mohsen. When International Water Law Meets Anarchy: How May Transformation Occur in Hydropolitical Relations?. In: 20th Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. 2023, Joensuu, Finland: University of Eastern Finnland.

• Edited Book

  • Nagheeby M, Amezaga J, Mdee A, ed. Critical Water Governance: Contextualising Water Security in Colombia, Ethiopia, India and Malaysia. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub, 2023.

• Online Publication

  • Nagheeby M. “Water for peace”, yes, but it doesn’t change the need for peace and justice : Reflections for World Water Day 2024. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: The UKRI GCRF Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub, 2024. Available at: https://www.watersecurityhub.org/news-events/news/water-peace-yes-it-doesnt-change-need-peace-and-justice.