Visits to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from South Asia and the Middle East, 1946–1990: An indicator of changing international programs and politics

The irrigation technozone: State power, expertise, and agrarian development in the U.S. West and British Punjab, 1880–1920

“…The arid regions of the Punjab and the U.S. West have a long and ongoing history of communication and connection with regards to irrigation engineering (Wescoat, 2000;Wescoat et al, 2000Wescoat et al, , 1992Headrick, 1990;Worster, 1985;Davis and Wilson, 1919;Flynn, 1892;Wilson, 1890Wilson, , 1891b. Given this association, our method is to apply narrative analysis to the texts produced by engineers and proponents of irrigation to illustrate how the interplay between engineers, technology, development, and territory contributed to the spatial differentiation of irrigation technozones.…”

The ‘sinew of development’: Cold War geopolitics, technical expertise, and water resource development in Southeast Asia, 1954–1975

“…Indeed, as of the early 1970s, well over 5500 individuals (almost all male engineering students) had undertaken more or less intensive training programs at the Bureau's offices in Denver and at field sites in the Western US. Wescoat et al (1992) aggregate these visitors according to country of origin and note the clear correlation between sending countries and those regions of strong interest to the architects of US foreign policy during the Cold War. Second, a significant number of the Bureau's trainees assumed very important positions within their own governments' water bureaucracies, including high-level positions in the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, India and Sri Lanka (Palmer, 1963).…”

Water Policy and Cultural Exchange: Transferring Lessons from Around the World to the Western United States

“…One of these export processes included visits and training of foreign water specialists in the U.S., notably at the Bureau of Reclamation headquarters in Denver and at western land-grant universities, notably in Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas, Utah and elsewhere, which received millions of dollars for applied research, education, and training contracts, e.g., in the field of irrigation systems management (Ives and Bochar, 2002;Freeman, et al, 1989;Wescoat, Smith, and Schaad, 1992 Nor is it clear what western water managers might draw from emerging international and global water forums. Some U.S. scholars are involved in the GWP, IWRA, WWC, and so on, but U.S. agencies and managers less so.…”