“The absence of conflict is not necessarily cooperation”

Tehran and Kabul are running out of water. The Amazon rainforest, where this year’s UN Climate Change Conference is held, is likely to turn into a savannah. Water is at the source of all life. And it is shared, yet countries are not up to the challenge of cooperating over it. Susanne Schmeier, professor of Water Cooperation, Law and Diplomacy, will hold her inaugural lecture on 3 December. We interviewed her about her work. 

In your inaugural lecture, you say all water is shared. What do you mean by this?

Even when water does not cross international borders, it moves through communities, provinces, sectors, and ecosystems that all depend on each other. The Mekong River flows from the Tibetan Plateau through six countries to the Mekong Delta, emptying in the South China Sea. It connects over 70 million people and over a hundred distinct ethnic groups – defying national borders and political interests. Therefore, countries have to work together to manage the water they share. My research shows how countries can cooperate over their shared water resources, ensuring benefits for humans and ecosystems today and in the future.

We cannot assume that just because cooperation has worked so far, it will continue to do so in the future.

What are the most interesting questions on water cooperation for you? 

Most research in the field of transboundary waters has focused on whether the shared nature of water resources will lead to conflict or to cooperation. But it has paid less attention to what cooperation actually is. I argue that it is more than just the absence of conflict and I research how states cooperate, whether their cooperation is effective, and how such cooperation develops over time. My research shows that cooperation over water – as it has developed in the majority of all shared waters around the world – is actually beneficial for people, ecosystems and countries. And it investigates what makes this cooperation beneficial. 

However, we cannot assume that just because cooperation has worked so far, it will continue to do so in the future. Part of my research, therefore, also examines whether the existing cooperation mechanisms are fit for the future. As the future will most likely be very different from what we think it will be today, it is important to prepare cooperation mechanisms for the many different futures that can potentially occur, ensuring flexibility and resilience.

We must dare to think in plural futures – some will be turbulent, others tranquil, just like rivers – but in all of them, water will continue to flow.

You have a joint professorship appointment at Utrecht University and IHE Delft. How can this collaboration strengthen both institutes?

All Sustainable Development Goals ultimately connect to water: food, energy, trade, transport, peace, you name it. IHE Delft works on water from every perspective, and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University looks at sustainability in an integrated way. These two come together perfectly in my expertise. I want to strengthen the water dimension of sustainability: how do we manage water so we can still have it for future generations of humans, ecosystems and species? But also how do we manage the broader sustainability transformation in a way that it benefits water instead of compromising it further?

How do you see the future of water cooperation?

As the world is changing, so must our thinking. Much of transboundary water governance and international water law scholarship has been preoccupied with the past: with how international water law has developed, how basin treaties have been interpreted, and how institutions were designed. But the future will not look like the past. In order to be prepared for the future and to actively shape it, we must dare to think in plural futures – some will be turbulent, others tranquil, just like rivers – but in all of them, water will continue to flow.