Defining Effective Transboundary Water Cooperation

by Dr. Melissa McCracken

With the increasing focus on transboundary cooperation as a part of the Sustainable Development Goal Framework, there is global recognition of transboundary water cooperation as a tool for improved governance and management of transboundary surface and groundwaters. However, there is not an agreed-upon definition of transboundary water cooperation in the literature or in practice.

This book develops the Four Frames of Transboundary Water Cooperation, which is a neutral modular framework for developing context-specific explanatory definitions of transboundary water cooperation in basins and aquifers. The Four Frames of Cooperation are: legal, institutional, relational, and outcome.

However, we need to move beyond defining cooperation to understand better measures of the quality and effectiveness of cooperative processes. The Weighted Model of Effective Cooperation, also developed by this book, presents a first step in qualitatively evaluating the effectiveness of transboundary water cooperation. This model defines effective transboundary water cooperation and operationalizes a method to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperative processes over internationally shared waters.

Effective cooperation emphasizes the relational and outcome frames of cooperation while working toward equitability and sustainability. Together, the Four Frames of Cooperation and the Weighted Model of Effective Cooperation will improve the understanding of cooperation and encourage a detailed evaluation of the quality, success, and effectiveness of cooperative processes.

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What Others Are Saying

“Terms as seemingly straightforward as 'cooperation' and 'effective' can actually be devilishly difficult to define, and harder to tangibly gage, especially in the world of international law and diplomacy. Melissa McCracken takes on the seemingly intractable task of operationalizing both concepts, as applied to the half the land surface of the earth that lies within river basins shared by two or more countries, and does so with aplomb. Invaluable for scholars and practitioners alike, this clear and precise volume will be helpful for anyone working in the realm of water cooperation and diplomacy, and will have useful lessons for those working in other shared resources as well."
Aaron T. Wolf, Professor of Geography, Oregon State University, USA.
"This book takes the next step in measuring the effectiveness of cooperation over shared water resources. By providing an approach to defining what effective cooperation actually is and to measuring where and how cooperation takes place at what level of effectiveness, it provides great guidance to both researchers and practitioners in ensuring that our shared water resources are being managed equitably and sustainably today and in an increasingly challenging future!"
Susanne Schmeier, Associate Professor in Water Law and Diplomacy, IHE-Delft, Netherlands.
"For those who think about and act to improve transboundary water conflicts, ‘cooperation’ is a most used and abused term. Through her scrutiny of the term, McCracken helps all of us to realise that water ‘cooperation’ between states can be as instrumental and destructive as it may be positive. Thanks to this book, we can now use the term ‘cooperation’ accurately, and perhaps move some water arrangements to be more equitable, more sustainable."
Mark Zeitoun, Professor of Water Security and Policy, University of East Anglia, UK.
"In a world filled with ever-changing complex challenges, nation States must find a way to jointly manage the diminishing resources of their shared freshwater resources - an issue at the heart of international water law. It is a line of enquiry that is directly relevant for almost all aspects of the current global agenda - from maintaining regional peace and security, to tackling threats of climate change, and ensuring the health and wealth of human and environmental ecosystems. McCracken's monograph meaningfully contributes to this discourse in a number of important ways. Through rigorous analysis, focusing first on difficult definitional issues, the study proceeds systematically to provide a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of transboundary water cooperation regimes. It offers a scholarly, as well as pragmatic, approach to identifying, assessing, and thus, contributing to meaningful transboundary water cooperation. Why is this important? Without effective transboundary water cooperation how can we hope to resolve one of the most urgent problems facing current and future generations - the fair, equitable and sustainable uses of one of the world's most precious resources - water? I recommend this work to all of those interested in the field of transboundary water cooperation, broadly defined."
Patricia Wouters, Founding Director, International Water Law Academy, CIBOS, University of Wuhan, China.