CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Szalkai, Kinga |
|---|---|
| Title | Water issues are what states make of them: a constructivist approach to conflict and cooperation over trans-boundary waters |
| Summary | It is generally acknowledged that water will be one of the most essential natural resources of the 21st century. Although the empirical analysis of the effects of water scarcity on conflictive and cooperative state relations is long present in the field of IR theory, there is not much theoretical research on this important issue. Furthermore, existing mainstream theories of neo-realism and neo-liberalism offer only rigid and narrow explanations about whether and how water distribution issues contribute to conflictive or cooperative state relations. One of the most apparent gaps in these theories is that neither neo-realism nor neo-liberalism can give a plausible explanation to the changes in the conflictive or cooperative nature of trans-boundary water issues. In my research I argue that a constructivist approach can make a contribution to the understanding of the changes in the cooperative and conflictive nature of trans-boundary water issues. During the analysis of three constructivism-based core assumptions about the changes in the cooperative and conflictive nature of trans-boundary water issues, I evaluate the possible contribution of constructivism on two case studies. From this analysis I draw the consequence that a constructivist approach has a significant added value in the analysis of the changes in the cooperative and conflictive nature of trans-boundary water issues, with which it goes well beyond the static explanations of neo-realist or neo-liberal approaches. |
| Supervisor | Akcali, Emel |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/szalkai_kinga.pdf |
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