My overall interest is in identifying new and better ways of managing transboundary water resources. Better, in my view, means maximizing the sustainable use of water at a reasonable cost while ensuring that the urgent water needs of all water users (that is, city residents, farmers and industrial developers) are met simultaneously. This has to happen while ecosystem services are maintained. In most parts of the world, efforts inspired by Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) do not meet these objectives.

Within each country, national and state governments set water-management goals and provide the infrastructure needed to meet them. They fund these efforts with general tax revenues or rely on dedicated water tariffs and fees to do so. Government agencies try to coordinate public and private efforts to deliver water to urban dwellers, manage wastewater, provide water for food production and manage the water necessary to produce and distribute energy. They must have the capacity to get bureaucrats at multiple levels to work together, either by offering them financial incentives or by exercising the authority required to ensure compliance. In most instances, they have trouble doing both.

Managing waters that cross international boundaries is even more difficult. Nations are sovereign. While international laws call for the sharing of transboundary waters, it is sometimes difficult to force countries to comply. However, most governments comply, most of the time, with most transboundary agreements because they do not want to lose their credibility (and they do not want to be forced out of other international regimes that are important to them). This is generally referred to as “compliance without enforcement” (Chayes and Chayes 1991). The water-sharing agreements that work best are those that meet the interests of the (people in the) states involved and do not require much enforcement.

Water management within a country and water diplomacy across international borders depend on the problem-solving capabilities of the political entities involved, especially when the self-interests of the parties are not aligned. Water management (that is, operational efforts to implement laws, policies and programs that water diplomacy generates) is only effective when allocation and investment decisions are made in a timely fashion, parties who stand to be affected by decisions are engaged in monitoring the results and helping revise decisions, staff capacity is sufficient and long-term relationships (especially trust) among relevant stakeholders are maintained or enhanced.