Synopses & Reviews
Focusing on transboundary river systems and their basins, the authors explore the fresh water crisis of Himalayan Asia. While the region hosts some of the world's mightiest rivers, it is also home to rapidly modernizing, increasingly affluent, and demographically multiplying societies. This combination ensures both the depletion of water resources and the increase in disputes over ownership of transboundary river waters. In a thorough investigation, based on extensive field research across Asia, the authors examine how these disputes impact the present and future interstate relations of this key region.
Synopsis
The authors explore the fresh water crisis of Himalayan Asia. While the region hosts some of the world's mightiest rivers, it is also home to rapidly modernizing, increasingly affluent, and demographically multiplying societies, ensuring the rapid depletion of water resources and of disputes over ownership of transboundary waters.
About the Author
DR. CHRISTOPHER JASPARRO is Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval War College, USA. He is a geographer specializing in environmental and non-state security threats. Recent publications have appeared in Geopolitics, Water Policy, and Jane's Intelligence Review.DR. DANIEL C. STOLL is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar, State of Qatar. His research interests include the role of multilateral institutions in the international system, as well as U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. He is co-editor of and contributing author to The Politics of Scarcity: Water in the Middle East.DR. ROBERT G. WIRSING is Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar, State of Qatar. Major published works include: Ethnic Diasporas and Great Power Strategies in Asia (2007); Baloch Nationalism and the Geopolitics of Energy Resources: The Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan; Fixing Fractured Nations: The Challenge of Ethnic Separatism in the Asia-Pacific (2010). His recent research focuses primarily on the politics and diplomacy of natural resources (water and energy) in South Asia.
Table of Contents
PART I: FUNDAMENTALS OF RIVER RIVALRY IN HIMALAYAN ASIA
Water Insecurity in Himalayan Asia
Challenge of Climate Change in Himalayan Asia
PART II: SOURCES OF TRANS-BOUNDARY RIVER DISPUTES
Damming the Rivers-I: The Irrigation Imperative
Damming the Rivers-II: The Energy Imperative
Damming the Rivers-III: The Diversion Imperative
PART III: ALTERNATIVES TO WATER CONFLICT
Cooperative River Basin Management
Water Technology Innovation
PART IV: THE FUTURE OF HIMALAYAN ASIA'S RIVERS
Conclusion: Swimming Against the Tide