CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Strosser, Jack |
|---|---|
| Title | Unraveling Path Dependency in the development of Kyrgyzstan's irrigation infrastructure |
| Summary | Water is a crucial resource in landlocked Central Asia. Until the USSR’s collapse, water distribution depended on Moscow’s decisions, so recent decades have challenged Central Asian Republics (CARs) on the question of distribution. Climate change has already reared its ugly head. Western Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have operated there for decades, water being one sector of focus. Climate change water politics, and security, dominate water-governance, geography, and natural sciences literature, but not institutionalist literature. MDBs in Central Asia’s water sector do not attract much academic attention yet remain crucial actors in the region’s water sector. Seeing this contradiction, an interesting case arises. The Kyrgyz Republic liberalized the fastest after 1991, controls one of the region’s main waterways, and struggles with irrigation infrastructure. The EBRD, a unique MDB for its private sector focus and explicit political mandate, has entered the Kyrgyz irrigation investment space recently. This work asks: if Kyrgyz irrigation infrastructure still struggles after thirty years, why does EBRD promote the same policy platforms as decades ago? Historical institutionalism offers a robust framework to understand institutions through history and helps to create a narrative arc (using primary and secondary sources) of both Kyrgyz water institutions and MDB projects on the ground. It finds that EBRD and Kyrgyzstan suffer from path dependency for differing reasons, a potentially tragic fact given encroaching climate change. |
| Supervisor | Piroska, Dora |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/strosser_jack.pdf |
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