River Basin Organizations in Water Diplomacy

Anoulak Kittikhoun is a political scientist, strategist and planner who has worked for a national government, a think tank, the United Nations, and a major river basin organization. As chief strategy and partnership officer of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat, he leads the organization’s work on strategic planning and policy, international cooperation, communication and stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation, and organizational development.Susanne Schmeier is an expert on the legal and institutional dimensions of natural resources governance, with a particular focus on shared water resources. She works for IHE Delft – Institute for Water Education, where her work focuses on research, capacity development and advisory services relating to conflict and cooperation over shared natural resources, international environmental and water law and water governance. Prior to joining IHE Delft, she worked for various international organization and national governments. She has published extensively on shared water resources governance and in particular river basin organizations.

"This book provides welcome insights into how river basin organizations from a range of political, cultural and physical settings have addressed sensitive development decisions. It goes beyond descriptions of institutional form and function to examine how RBOs have engaged in water diplomacy and the related difficulties, successes and limitations. We may agree or disagree with the perspectives presented, but this valuable contribution to the discussion on RBOs provides the framing and basis for us to draw our own conclusions." – Jeremy Bird, former Director General of the International Water Management Institute."While competition over water resources is seldom a direct or single cause of armed conflict, tensions and disputes over water are real and have to be resolved. This book offers valuable insights into the importance of River Basin Organizations as a key element in this global picture and should stimulate further thinking about the needed innovations that will strengthen water cooperation as a globally important instrument of peace." – Danilo Turk, Chair of the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace.

• Introduction: Do river basin organizations make a difference in water diplomacy and conflict management? 1. The legal role and context of river basin organizations 2. Water diplomacy and collaborative governance in the Great Lakes Basin 3. Water diplomacy and shared resources along the United States-Mexico border 4. Process aspects of the development of shared waters agreements: The Columbia River Treaty 5. International river basin organizations and benefit sharing arrangements in the Columbia and Senegal international river basins: Past, present, and future 6. The Niger Basin: Is development raising the stakes of cooperation? 7. Water diplomacy and conflict transformation in the Nile River Basin: The key role of the Nile Basin Initiative over the past 20 years 8. Managing abundance: CICOS and the Congo 9. Water diplomacy in the absence of a river basin organization: A case study in Jordan, Israel, and Palestine 10. Water diplomacy in the Helmand River Basin: Exploring the obstacles to cooperation within the shadow of anarchy 11. Prolonging or resolving water conflicts in Central Asia? The International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea 12. The Mekong River Commission as a water diplomat 13. China in international institutions for water governance 14. Managing disagreements in European basins: What role for river basin organizations in water diplomacy? 15. Conclusion: Managing tensions and sharing benefits—international rivers in conflict and cooperation