This book provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literature on managing conflicts stemming from the quantity and quality problems of water around the world. So far, few comprehensive and interdisciplinary analyses of such international surface water conflicts have been produced. The literature surveyed indicates that while in many areas there has been extensive research and analysis, there continues to be a need for more studies on the specific situations that lead to conflicts over water and other environment resources. Lateral learning, an attempt to understand the similarities between all conflicts over natural resources, will lend itself to future applications in predicting and preventing these conflicts. A survey of internati9nal watersheds provides some bibliographical and general data collected from over 200 transboundary watersheds. A subset of case studies of the exhaustive list of international watersheds is examined in greater detain. A related effort is a compilation and analysis of relevant water treaties, and the rationale for their implementations.

Examining international water allocation policies in different parts of the world, this book suggests that they can be used as a platform to induce cooperation over larger political issues, ultimately settling conflicts. The main premise is that water can and should be used as a catalyst for peace and cooperation rather than conflict. Evidence is provided to support this claim through detailed case studies from the Middle East and the Lesotho Highlands in Africa. These international cases – including bilateral water treaties and their development and formation process and aftermath – are analyzed to draw conclusions about the outcomes as well as the processes by which these outcomes are achieved. It is demonstrated that the perception of a particular treaty as being equitable and fair is mainly shaped by the negotiation process used to reach certain outcomes, rather than being determined mechanistically by the quantitative allocation of water to each party. The processes and perceptions leading to international water conflict resolutions are emphasized as key issues in advancing cooperation and robust implementation of international water treaties. The key messages of the book are therefore relevant to the geo-political and hydro-political aspects of water resources in the context of bilateral and multilateral conflicts, and the trans-boundary management of water resources, which contributes insights to political ecology, geo-politics, and environmental policy.

A thorough analysis of how effectively international courts and tribunals adjudicate transboundary water disputes, using detailed case studies.

‘Complexity of Transboundary Water Conflicts’ seeks to understand transboundary water issues as complex systems with contingent conditions and possibilities. To address those conditions and leverage the possibilities it introduces the concept of enabling conditions as a pragmatic way to identify and act on the emergent possibilities to resolve transboundary water issues. Based on this theoretical frame, the book applies the ideas and tools from complexity science, contingency and enabling conditions to account for events in the formulation of treaties/agreements between disputing riparian states in river basins across the world (Indus, Jordan, Nile, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Colorado, Danube, Senegal and Zayandehrud). It also includes a section with scholars’ reflections on the relevance and weakness of the theoretical framework.

What is the one thing that no one can do without? Water. Where water crosses boundaries – be they economic, legal, political or cultural – the stage is set for disputes between different users trying to safeguard access to a vital resource, while protecting the natural environment. Without strategies to anticipate, address, and mediate between competing users, intractable water conflicts are likely to become more frequent, more intense, and more disruptive around the world. In this book, Delli Priscoli and Wolf investigate the dynamics of water conflict and conflict resolution, from the local to the international. They explore the inexorable links between three facets of conflict management and transformation: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), public participation, and institutional capacity. This practical guide will be invaluable to water management professionals, as well as to researchers and students in engineering, economics, geography, geology, and political science who are involved in any aspects of water management.

This fifth volume in the Permanent Court of Arbitration/Peace Palace Papers series reproduces the work of the 6th International Law Seminar held at the Peace Palace on November 8, 2002. The Seminar's distinguished panelists and participants focused on the settlement of international disputes over that most essential of natural resources water. They explored a range of questions: Which settlement mechanisms are most promising in the field of transboundary freshwater disputes? Is adjudication a suitable method of apportioning water rights which are vital not only to human life, but to the agriculture and industry of every nation on the planet? Given the need for "win-win" solutions to most water disputes, are negotiation and regional cooperation the only realistic and viable methods for settling them? What is the potential role of conciliation, mediation, good offices and other ad hoc mechanisms? This volume also contains the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, a multilateral framework treaty dealing with transboundary freshwater, which provides a variety of tools (such as the submission of disputes to fact-finding commissions) for the peaceful resolution of water disputes.

This book examines the political economy that governs the management of international transboundary river basins in the developing world. These shared rivers are the setting for irrigation, hydropower and flood management projects as well as water transfer schemes. Often, these projects attempt to engineer the river basin with deep political, socio-economic and environmental implications. The politics of transboundary river basin management sheds light on the challenges concerning sustainable development, water allocation and utilization between sovereign states. Advancing conceptual thinking beyond simplistic analyses of river basins in conflict or cooperation, the author proposes a new analytical framework. The Transboundary Waters Interaction NexuS (TWINS) examines the coexistence of conflict and cooperation in riparian interaction. This framework highlights the importance of power relations between basin states that determine negotiation processes and institutions of water resources management. The analysis illustrates the way river basin management is framed by powerful elite decision-makers, combined with geopolitical factors and geographical imaginations. In addition, the book explains how national development strategies and water resources demands have a significant role in shaping the intensities of conflict and cooperation at the international level. The book draws on detailed case studies from the Ganges River basin in South Asia, the Orange–Senqu River basin in Southern Africa and the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia, providing key insights on equity and power asymmetry applicable to other basins in the developing world.