Double-Edged Hydropolitics on the Nile - Center for Security Studies ...

<strong>Double</strong>-<strong>Edged</strong> <strong>Hydropolitics</strong> on the Nile
or the design of decision support systems for river basin management (Ito
et al.; Salewicz and Nakayama 2004). The development and applications
of methods to support multi-stakeholder decision-making (Simonovic
and Fahmy 1999; Brown and Joubert 2003; Cai et al. 2004; Ghanbarpour
et al. 2005) are not part of the analytical framework applied in this thesis,
even though such approaches may obviously yield helpful tools for water
professionals in the Nile countries to address the challenges of designing
and implementing domestic and transboundary water development and
management policies.
1.4 Conceptual framework
This section introduces the two-level game approach as the overall conceptual
framework applied to analyze the interactions between water
policy processes at the domestic and transboundary levels. It further specifies
the concepts that were applied to frame the domestic policy-making
processes.
The notion of ‘transboundary cooperation’ is used for any advance along
one or several of the following tracks: 1) attribution of riparian water utilization
rights and responsibilities, 2) establishment of joint river management
institutions, 3) joint planning and implementation of river development
strategies and projects, and 4) any further provisions, e.g., regarding data
exchange, or research cooperation. ‘Transboundary conflicts’ are defined as
situations where 1) at least two riparian states interact in an incompatible
way, 2) at least one of the involved parties aims for or ignores the negative
impacts of the interaction on the other party, and 3) at least one of the involved
parties experiences damage from the interaction (see Mason 2004). Elements
of transboundary conflict and cooperation are thus not mutually exclusive
and may co-exist. ‘Domestic water policies’ are defined as including not only
the written planning documents, but also unwritten strategies pursued by
the authorities, and particularly also the attention and priority given to the
planned reforms and projects during implementation. The ‘national interest’
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