International bilateral water treaty formation

Espey, Molly; Towfique, Basman

doi:10.1029/2003wr002534

Cited by 62 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Here we follow Espey and Towfique (2004), who use trade to predict an increased likelihood of states entering into treaties. Dinar and Dinar (2005) argue that a record of trade between states indicate a history of cooperation that may lower the threshold to enter into negotiations and eventually sign treaties.…”

Section: Context Of Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peaceful Management of International River Claims

Hensel

Brochmann

2009

Int Negot

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As global water scarcity increases, both scholars and leaders have suggested that water will be a leading cause of future armed conflict. Yet other scholars argue that states typically cooperate rather than fight to manage their shared water resources. We address these arguments by examining the management of internationally shared rivers in the Americas, Western Europe, and the Middle East from 1900-2001. We propose hypotheses on the factors that lead states to become involved in disagreements over shared rivers as well as the factors that lead them to negotiate over these disagreements. Heckman probit analysis suggests that water scarcity --found by past work to be an important influence on armed conflict over rivers --is also an important influence on peaceful efforts to settle river problems; river claims are more likely where water supply is lower and demand is greater, but negotiations are also generally more likely in these same situations. Furthermore, while the existence of river treaties does not prevent the emergence of river claims, the presence of at least one treaty over the specific subject of the claim provides an important starting point that greatly increases the likelihood of negotiations over such claims. We conclude that the more pessimistic views of water management are missing an important part of the story. States are much more likely to negotiate in the most dangerous situations, and institutionalization of river resources can make an important contribution to negotiations over any disagreements that do emerge.

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Section: Context Of Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peaceful Management of International River Claims

Hensel

Brochmann

2009

Int Negot

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“…At the same time, knowledge about adequate institutional design for the management of international rivers remains limited (Bernauer, 1997). While some progress has been made in explicating the negotiation strategies and external conditions under which the formation of international water institutions or regimes can be expected (LeMarquand, 1977;Durth, 1996;Marty, 2001;Espey and Towfique, 2004;Sadoff and Grey, 2002;Song and Whittington, 2004;Dinar, 2006;Lindemann, 2006;Dombrowsky, 2007a, b), there is still no full convergence of opinion among the various authors. Furthermore, the establishment of an international water regime does not provide any guarantees that it will ultimately contribute towards problem solving.…”

Section: The Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional design and regime effectiveness in transboundary river management – the Elbe water quality regime

Dombrowsky¹

2008

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The literature on transboundary river management suggests that institutions play an important role in bringing about cooperation. However, knowledge about how such institutions should be designed in order to do so remains limited. One way to learn more about adequate institutional design is to assess the effectiveness of existing regimes, and to trace the causal relationships that lead to the respective outcomes. In order to gain further insights into the relationship between institutional design and regime effectiveness, this paper presents a study on the water quality regime of the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe (ICPE). The analysis is based on a review of pertinent documents and ten qualitative interviews with Czech and German Commission members and NGO representatives. Particular emphasis has been put on determining the ICPE's specific contribution and the no-regime counterfactual as well as on the perceived expediency of the institutional arrangements.The study shows overall that the countries were relatively successful in improving water quality in the Elbe basin. However, this outcome can only partly be attributed to the ICPE itself. Furthermore, the ICPE's contribution towards achieving the various goals varied significantly between the different areas of activity: it was relatively significant where the main responsibility for action lay with the public authorities, such as in the area of wastewater treatment and the establishment of an international alarm plan and model, but was practically non-existent in the reduction of non-point pollution from agriculture, where success depended on the behavior of individual private actors (farmers). The commission contributed towards problem solving by serving as a forum for the joint identification of priorities for action from a basin-wide perspective. The resulting international obligations increased the power of national water administraCorrespondence to: I. Dombrowsky (ines.dombrowsky@ufz.de) tions and their access to funds. At the same time, the Commission's reporting to the public served as an enforcement mechanism. From a methodological point of view, the paper highlights the opportunities and limitations of a combined quantitative and qualitative approach to determining regime effectiveness.

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“…[25] Two empirical studies seek to identify factors that lead to the formation of international water treaties [Espey and Towfique, 2004;Song and Whittington, 2004]. Both articles conduct logit analyses of the probability of treaty formation between countries, using somewhat different vectors of social and geographic characteristics as explanatory variables.…”

Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dividing the waters: An empirical analysis of interstate compact allocation of transboundary rivers

Katz

2011

Water Resources Research

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[1] Legal scholars and jurists have identified several criteria (e.g., hydrology, climate, population, and historical water use) to guide equitable allocation of transboundary rivers among riparian claimants. Are these criteria used in practice, such that a quantitative pattern emerges from actual water-sharing agreements regarding factors affecting allocations? To address this, we study interstate compacts, the principal mechanism for allocating the waters of transboundary rivers within the United States. We develop a georeferenced data set and construct variables representing conditions in state-based watersheds of 14 rivers at the times of compact ratification. A state's water allocation share of a compact serves as the dependent variable, and a set of explanatory variables is derived from legal and political theories. We estimate allocation shares using both ordinary least squares (OLS) and bootstrap regressions, and we apply two alternative specifications of the factors affecting compact allocations, one with and one without political variables. Estimated coefficients on variables for land area, population, prior water use, riparian position, and Congressional committee chair are statistically significant in the OLS regressions. The preferred OLS specification, which includes political variables, provides a good fit (R 2 = 0.84). We also find that OLS and bootstrap regressions have a similar ability to predict state allocation shares. We discuss how the results could be used as a reference point in negotiations over new compacts or international river treaties and as a basis to identify existing compacts with statistical outliers.

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International bilateral water treaty formation

Cited by 62 publications

References 18 publications

Peaceful Management of International River Claims

Peaceful Management of International River Claims

Institutional design and regime effectiveness in transboundary river management – the Elbe water quality regime

Dividing the waters: An empirical analysis of interstate compact allocation of transboundary rivers

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