Hydropolitical Complexes and Asymmetrical Power: Conflict, Cooperation, and Governance of International River Systems (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
INTRODUCTION Riparians in transboundary river systems negotiate watersharing policies to promote political stability, regional security, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability. Yet international water disputes are occurring within most multistate river systems. The decision to resolve these disputes through negotiated settlements or to escalate the disputes into violence is a complicated and contentious calculation. Water-based explanations of conflict and cooperation need to incorporate economy, ecology, technology, security, politics and policy. As Arun Elhance articulates in his seminal work Hydropolitics in the Third World: Conflict and Cooperation in International River Basins, the multiple-use of transboundary water makes hydropolitics “one of the most urgent, complex, and contentious issues that the developing countries and the international community will have to face and resolve in the next century” (1999:4). Although there are successful watersharing arrange...
International Water Conflict and Cooperation: The Role of Power Relations among Riparians *
2012
This paper analzyes a special kind of an environmental conflict – water disputes over international fresh water resources. In order to present a thorough explanation of this phenomenon, the paper discusses the Turkish-Syrian water conflict through following variables: (1) type of conflict (strategic versus symbolic); (2) structural variables that include both (a) regional power distribution between disputants and regional countries, and, (b) issue-power distribution; and (3) linkage variables that include a number of tactics to tie a simple water dispute to other issue/issues. It was found that Turkey, although it has maintained the power dominance in the EuphratesTigris Basin, tends toward a voluntary form of cooperation. The cooperative behavior of Turkey and Syria in water resource policy has been attributed to the Syrian and Turkish successful use of credible linkages, and to the mostly strategic character of the conflict rather than to Turkey’s hegemonic status.
Transboundary water interaction II: soft power underlying conflict and cooperation
International Environmental …, 2010
This paper examines the role and effects of 'soft' or covert forms of power in non-violent water conflicts in hegemonic settings. It counters much of the work reflecting a growing interest in inter-state transboundary environmental analysis focused on links between natural resources and violent conflict. The first paper in this series (Zeitoun and Mirumachi, 2008) emphasised the existence of 'negative' forms of inter-state transboundary water interaction, and its role in worsening inter-state relations. The findings are built upon here to examine how the less observable forms of power, and power asymmetry, serve to perpetuate inequitable and ultimately unsustainable arrangements. In hegemonic situations where the 'first amongst equals' has a greater ability to define and shape the interaction, states with less capacity of covert power may find compliance the only pragmatic alternative. The paper also discusses how 'soft' power can be used to frame inequitable forms of cooperation in a positive light. The findings stress the importance of analysts questioning first or claimed appearances of 'positive' cooperation, and of examining the soft power underlying transboundary arrangements. An implication for policy is that power asymmetry be acknowledged and confronted, through attempts to level the playing field, or through the facilitation of steps for basin hegemons to take on leadership positions. Exemplification is given through consideration of transboundary water resources around the globe, primarily in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
Assessment of transboundary river basins for potential hydro-political tensions
Global Environmental Change
This paper presents a systematic, global assessment of transboundary watersheds that identifies regions more likely to experience hydro-political tensions over the next decade and beyond based upon environmental, political, and economic indicators. The development of new water infrastructure in transboundary basins can strain relationships among fellow riparians as the impacts of new dams and diversions are felt across borders. Formal arrangements governing transboundary river basins, such as international water treaties and river basin organizations, provide a framework for dialogue and negotiation, thus contributing to assuaging potential disputes. Our study examines these two issues in tandem − the stresses inherent in development and the mitigating impact of institutions − and maps the risk of potential hydro-political tensions that exist where basins may be ill-equipped to deal with transboundary disputes triggered by the construction of new dams and diversions. We also consider several factors that could exacerbate those hydropolitical tensions in the near future, including changes in terrestrial water storage, projected changes in water variability, per capita gross national income, domestic and international armed conflicts, and recent history of disputes over transboundary waters. The study points to the vulnerability of several basins in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central America, the northern part of the South American continent, the southern Balkans as well as in different parts of Africa, where new water infrastructure is being built or planned, but formal transboundary arrangements are absent. Moreover, in some of these regions there is a concomitance of several political, environmental and socioeconomic factors that could exacerbate hydropolitical tensions. This study contributes to the understanding of how the recent proliferation of development accompanied with unfavourable socioeconomic and environmental indicators may influence global hydropolitical resilience.
Cooperation and conflict between states over transboundary river basins
This dissertation surveys the intertwined relation between the notion of conflict and cooperation over transboundary river basins. Indeed, stresses over international river basins have risen at a dangerous pace over the last decades combining climate change, growth of world population and economic imperatives, making for some the probability a water war scenario even more real. On the contrary, water agreements have been historically numerous, illustrating the fact that states mainly cooperate over their shared water resources. Therefore, this dissertation will examine both the conflictive and cooperative potential of transboundary river basins. 3 Candidate no: 103565
Hydro-hegemony-a framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts
Water Policy, 2006
The increasing structural and physical scarcity of water across the globe calls for a deeper understanding of transboundary water conflicts. Conventional analysis tends to downplay the role that power asymmetry plays in creating and maintaining situations of water conflict that fall short of the violent form of war and to treat as unproblematic situations of cooperation occurring in an asymmetrical context. The conceptual Framework of Hydro-Hegemony presented herein attempts to give these two features -power and varying intensities of conflict -their respective place in the perennial and deeply political question: who gets how much water, how and why?
Convergencia de Conceptos: Propuestas de Solución a las Amenazas Actuales para la Seguridad y Defensa de Colombia, 2018
All societies are heavily dependent upon the use of freshwater; however, as human population and economies grow, water resources have been increasingly scarce and variable. Adding the fact that the majority of freshwater resources are transboundary, they have always been a fundamental geopolitical factor. International watersheds have long been considered a source of international conflict, but how accurate is it? The aim of this chapter is, firstly, to enrich the debate in water politics about transboundary water conflicts, starting from an overview of the 'water war' and 'water peace' hypothesis and highlighting their critiques, finally conceptualizing the role of power and hegemony to understand power asymmetries and the hegemonic nature of riparian relations. Secondly, by adopting the hydrohegemony framework, this chapter will investigate the dynamics of China's hydrobehaviour in the Mekong River Basin region.
Aquatic Procedia, 2014
The purpose of this paper is to review the key analytical developments in international trans-boundary water politics and to shed light on the important, but overlooked, issue of ecosystems. The scholarship has gained greater breadth than the narrowly focused ‘water war’ discussion of two decades ago. The understanding of power and power relations has given greater nuance to why and how conflict and cooperation occur in international trans-boundary river basins. A new conceptual approach, the Transboundary Waters Interaction Nexus (TWINS), is discussed briefly to show how the analysis of coexisting conflict and cooperation provides an insight into the cross-sector linkages of water and the resulting interests and motives governing water use and allocation. However, it is argued that much of the literature is anthropocentric and frames the natural environment through a human lens. This paper calls for more attention to the ways in which the analytical framework on trans-boundary water interaction can include ecosystems as legitimate users. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research and policy discussions.
A review of hydro-hegemony and transboundary water governance
Water Policy
This review paper is an attempt to analyze the existing literature on hydro-hegemony (HH) theory, which has emerged to explain transboundary water interactions. The literature highlights that the conventional water interaction literature inadequately deals with three important factors: (i) asymmetric power relations, (ii) varying intensities of conflict, and (iii) the importance of the geographical location of riparian states. Since its emergence, it has evolved both in theory development and in application to transboundary basins. Although, an attempt has been made earlier by Warner et al. (2017) to review, organize, and evaluate the overall literature on HH, the review itself is somehow silent on the hegemonic approaches to assess its contribution to the transboundary water governance literature and to identify the existing and future research gaps. This paper, however, not just addresses these omissions to (i) review the scholarly literature on HH; (ii) explore the challenges ass...
Water International
Because water connects territories, its use involves collective action challenges and opportunities. Yet that action is complicated by the multiple meanings of water to people. Back in the 1990s, Donahue (1997) noted that water is understood in different ways: as an economic good (in the marketplace), as a political good (in bureaucracy) and as a cultural good (in kinship). Different actors use different perspectives of water to interact with each other, creating water conflicts and varying interests. In each case, power matters a great deal. Still, most of the literature on transboundary water is remarkably powerblind, or at least power-shy. When it appears, power is often seen as a problem. Yet power is also productive, in transboundary waters as much as in Newtonian mechanics. In both cases, it can be argued that nothing happens without the judicious application of power. Transboundary water interactions are inherently political, and are determined by the broader socio-political context of countries sharing the river basin (Barua et al., 2018; Warner et al., 2017). Some transboundary water scholars from different disciplines have been studying river basins to understand how power asymmetries between riparian nations influence interactions (