Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Norm Entrepreneurs in Water Cooperation? The Role of International Actors in Promoting the International Water Law Principles in Central Asia

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  • Countries with shared common resources increasingly encounter water issues that transcend national borders, and international actors (IAs) like international organizations or development agencies play a significant role in addressing them. Realizing the benefits that IAs provide by contributing to peaceful reconciliation of diverging interests over shared water management, states have embraced them as important actors in pursuing national and international goals. However, they do more than simply assist in addressing problems. Through the provision of expertise and financial resources, IAs introduce new norms conditioned by their belief of how to govern water resources, thereby, exercise normative power. The region of Central Asia, which includes five post-Soviet states, is an illustrative case. Owing to its specific historical experience and current patterns of global interactions, the region became a platform for various external actors to promote their norms in water management. In this setting, an assumption of this thesis is that a number of IAs transmit their normative convictions by means of promoting norms and advancing them into transboundary water cooperation in Central Asia. This study aims to understand how IAs promote the ‘equitable and reasonable utilization’ principle as a water-sharing norm based on three regional water programs in Central Asia. To test this assumption, the theoretical framework grounded in constructivism norm research has been conjugated with empirical results compiled from the content analysis of reports produced by the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. Out of three cases only one program, targeted on institutional mechanisms of transboundary water cooperation, demonstrate a normative connection with the principle. Thus, the ‘equitable and reasonable utilization’ principle was articulated in proposals related to the strengthening of the regional water management institutions, such as IFAS, ICWC, etc., enhance dialogue on transboundary water management issues, development of joint frameworks, capacity buildings on the strengthening of legal and institutional frameworks for regional water cooperation. In a broad sense, however, the assumption remains valid. Although received results suggest a limited reference to the international water law principles, the IWRM and Nexus concepts have been widely proliferated in project texts. In other words, the principle of ‘equitable and reasonable water utilization’ per se gained a margin promotion, instead, the IWRM and Nexus principles got widen application as a water-sharing norm in Central Asia. It can be concluded that international actors act as norms entrepreneurs in the region, rather proliferating the IWRM and NEXUS concepts than the principles of international water law.
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  • I am extremely thankful to the Rotary International, namely Mr. Steve Brown, Ms. Pamela S. Russell, Ms. Fary Moini, Mr. Carlo Nash, Mr. Henk Jaap Kloosterman, Ms. Sylvia Homberger for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this program and taking care of me afterward.
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  • Pending Publication
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  • 2021-02-09 to 2024-01-11

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