Mahmoud Elzain Hamid

Mahmoud Elzain Hamid is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He is finalising his research on “Environmental scarcity and the changing hydropolitical formula in the Nile Basin”, being his thesis’ title. By taking the case of the Sudan, his research addresses the changing relationship between the River Nile and the non-riverain landscape making the national territory of this country. His research focuses on the social effects of environmental scarcity, namely food insecurity, mass population displacement/concentration and disruption of local and national institutions. While this research studies the increase in demand for the Nile waters due to population concentration along the banks of this river, as cause of conflict among the Nile riparians, it also explores as to whether this population concentration would affect a change in the political weight of riverain groups in the Sudan and, as a corollary, a change in Sudan’s foreign policy. Sudan’s relations with Egypt and Ethiopia are particularly emphasised. Between June 2002 and March 2003, Mahmoud Elzain Hamid worked as a teaching and research assistant at the Institute of Social Studies, while continuing with his research.

Mahmoud Elzain Hamid acquired his B.Sc. in political science in 1988 in the Department of Political Science/University of Khartoum. Between 1991 and 1995 he worked as a teaching assistant at the same department and he acquired his M.Sc. in political Science from the Graduate College/University of Khartoum in 1995. In August 1995 he was admitted for his MA in Politics of Alternative Development Strategies at the Institute of Social Studies where he graduated in December 1996.
His research interests include areas of “socio-cultural displacement and the political potential of population movements”, “hydropolitics, environment and sustainable development” and “peace, conflict and conflict transformation”. Related to these he published an article in Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 23, No. 70, December 1996 with the title “Tribe and Religion in the Sudan”. Three chapters in three books are forthcoming. These are “Population Concentration and the Spectre of War in the Nile Basin”, in Wars in Africa: the Root and Routes, for the Ashgate “Critical Security Studies Series”; “Reshaping the Political: Factorising the Nile Water in the Sudan”, in Water Politics and Control: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Vol. III; and “Peoples’ encroachment onto Sudan’s Nile banks and its impact on Egypt” in Endangered International Waters: Lessons from Domestic Security Issues, United Nations University Press, Tokyo. He also wrote a working paper with the title “The Place of the ‘Political’ in Sustainable Development Discourse: An Inquiry on Global Equity and the Political Potential of Environmental Risks”, Institute of Advanced Studies, United Nations University, Tokyo, 1999.
At the African Studies Centre, Mahmoud Elzain Hamid is working on a book with the title “Descending to the river: environmental scarcity, population concentration and Ethiopia’s contest for the Nile waters (1970-2002)”.