The Political Context of Conflict and Cooperation Over International River Basins

Frey, Frederick W.

doi:10.1080/02508069308686151

Cited by 88 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The most important of these relate to countering hydro-hegemony as a preliminary to resolving water conflicts. Considerable attention is merited in exploring how the hydro-hegemony framework may support the devices of international water law such as customary international trans-boundary water law and human rights law (see especially Frey, 1993 andWolf, 2002). Anti-hegemonic resistance tactics such as the effect of time, of silence, the "cost of no agreement" and methods of issue de-securitization should also be explored.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It will be argued that control over water resources is not achieved through water wars but through a suite of power-related tactics and strategies. Groundbreaking contributions in this field include those of Frey (1993), Naff and Matson (1984), Gleick (1995), Lowi (1993), Homer-Dixon (1999) and Wolf (2002Wolf ( , 2004. Despite such interest, we feel that understanding remains incomplete and water conflict analysis has suffered from the under-consideration of two distinct and important theoretical issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, this analysis captures and refines two approaches to water conflict prediction into a single framework: (a) scale of water conflict event intensities and (b) Frey's (1993) poweranalytic framework. In doing this, the dynamics of water conflict are stressed, rather than attempts to predict their occurrence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydro-hegemony – a framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts

2006

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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?Hydro-hegemony is hegemony at the river basin level, achieved through water resource control strategies such as resource capture, integration and containment. The strategies are executed through an array of tactics (e.g. coercionpressure, treaties, knowledge construction, etc.) that are enabled by the exploitation of existing power asymmetries within a weak international institutional context. Political processes outside the water sector configure basin-wide hydro-political relations in a form ranging from the benefits derived from cooperation under hegemonic leadership to the inequitable aspects of domination. The outcome of the competition in terms of control over the resource is determined through the form of hydro-hegemony established, typically in favour of the most powerful actor.The Framework of Hydro-hegemony is applied to the Nile, Jordan and Tigris and Euphrates river basins, where it is found that current hydro-hegemonic configurations tend towards the dominative form.. There is evidence in each case of power asymmetries influencing an inequitable outcome -at the expense of lingering, low-intensity conflicts. It is proposed that the framework provides an analytical paradigm useful for examining the options of such powerful or hegemonized riparians and how they might move away from domination towards cooperation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydro-hegemony – a framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts

2006

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“…In a transboundary context, the first attempts to study how control of water resources is related to power dynamics were made by Fredrick Frey (1993), Peter Gleick (1993), and Miriam Lowi (1993. Gleick used the Euphrates River basin, and Lowi the Jordan River basin, to show how power is used to achieve political gains in transboundary negotiations (Menga, 2016).…”

Section: Role Of Power In Transboundary Water Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Powering or sharing water in the Brahmaputra River basin

Barua

Vij

Rahman

2017

International Journal of Water Resources Development

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This article examines the power interplay that shapes the transboundary water interaction in the Brahmaputra River basin. The article provides two key insights based on data sharing and bilateralism aspects. First, the lack of a standard, hydrological data-sharing mechanism has created a sense of mistrust between riparians. Second, bilateralism and power asymmetry between the riparian countries has created a sense of unilateral control over the Brahmaputra River. This article concludes that due to regional geopolitics, issues of sovereignty, and unequal power, negotiation for a multilateral basin-wide treaty at this moment is a non-starter in the Brahmaputra basin.

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“…Within this branch of thought, the specific power distribution between riparian states reinforces or counterbalances geographical structures and has therefore been integrated in the set of explanatory factors for institutionalization as well (Frey 1993, Lowi/Rothmann 1993, Durth 1996, Amery/Wolf 2000, Dinar 2008): Depending on whether the power is concentrated in the hands of an upstream or a downstream state, a unilateral order will be maintained or IWTs will be signed and RBOs established. Lowi and Rothmann (1993) argue that cooperation is unlikely to take place if the upstream riparian is in a hegemonic position since it does not only have no interest in cooperating, but also possesses the necessary means to resist demands for cooperation from downstream states.…”

Section: The Constellation Of Actors In International Watercourses -Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing International Watercourses - Perspectives from Different Disciplines: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Schmeier

2010

SSRN Journal

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International watercourses, transcending the boundaries of nation states, are of great importance for the socioeconomic development of societies but are, at the same time prone to international collective action problems calling for cooperative international solutions. This paper reviews the existing literature on the governance of international watercourses. In a first part, the origins of hydropolitics, that is, the study of conflict and cooperation in international watercourses, are introduced. The following sections then focus on the emergence as well as on the effectiveness of institutionalized mechanisms that have been established for the governance of international watercourses. In addition, an outlook on emerging and future fields of study is provided in the last chapter of the paper. It is argued that only an integrated theoretical approach that goes beyond disciplinary divides and the sole focus on case studies can provide adequate theoretical means and thus policy concepts and strategies to cope with persistent collective action problems in international river and lake basins.

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The Political Context of Conflict and Cooperation Over International River Basins

Cited by 88 publications

References 5 publications

Hydro-hegemony – a framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts

Hydro-hegemony – a framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts

Powering or sharing water in the Brahmaputra River basin

Governing International Watercourses - Perspectives from Different Disciplines: A Comprehensive Literature Review

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