Conflict & Cooperation in International River Basins - JPM425

• Title: Conflict & Cooperation in International River Basins
• Guaranteed by: Department of Political Science (23-KP)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2019
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (30)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: cancelled
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: PhDr. Mgr. et Mgr. Jakub Landovský, Ph.D.

Annotation

Conflict and cooperation in international watersheds

Course Purpose and General Description
Conflict and cooperation in international watersheds is a university grade course for students of political science, international relations or public international law. Like many other natural resources that are trans-boundary in nature, water is also subject to conflict and cooperation among nations, international organizations and variety of organizations on the sub state level. With about 40% of the river basins in the world being shared among two or more nations, considering population growth rates and elevated levels of pollution, quantity and quality of water are expected to lead to more interstate interactions over water. These interactions could be ether conflictive or cooperative, with a changing intensity. Reason for these interactions is a change of circumstances in the watershed.
The literature on water conflicts includes many disciplines and many approaches. Analyses by various scholars including Wolf, Dinar, Almery, Swain, Wouters, Conca will be used. Among the prominent approaches to study changes in the watersheds we will use analyse of international treaties based on public international law. We will survey behaviour determined by the physical attributes of the watershed in the discourse of political geography. We will consider hydro strategic position of respective riparian states in the context of geopolitics. In general socioeconomic, biophysical and geopolitical changes will be examined with appropriate tools from the toolbox of scientific approaches. Understanding the non-water and water background of the disputes, the structure of possible and actual negotiations, and patterns of cooperation among riparian nations is of great importance. Water negotiations and will be simulated in the framework of international negotiation theory and other descriptive and quantitative approaches, including game theory will be used to suggest appropriate strategy for selected watersheds. We will focus on hotspot of current or past water disputes or water related cooperative events including: Nile, Okawango, Jordan Euphrates-Tigris, Amu Darya, Syr Daria, Ganges-Brahmaputra Mengha, Indus, Mekong, Slaween, Danube, Rio Grande and more.
Students will gain knowledge in basic concepts of International Water Law, Non-cooperative and Cooperative Game Theory, Negotiation Theory, International Relations Theory, and their application in international water. Students will also become acquainted with several major case studies of water conflict and cooperation through reading, writing and discussion. Student involvement in the class is essential for a successful outcome of the course.
Course Requirements and Structure
The course will consist of 8-9 lessons and last lesson will be dedicated to the presentation of the analytic papers by students and colloquial examination of the acquired knowledge.
PhDr. Mgr. Jakub Landovský Ph.D.

Last update: Landovský Jakub, PhDr. Mgr. et Mgr., Ph.D. (29.09.2012)

Requirements to the exam

Evaluation is performed in accordance to the Dean’s Provision.

Last update: Krejčíková Jana, Mgr. (29.03.2019)

Syllabus

Course syllabus

Course structure - Conflict and cooperation in international watersheds

1        Introduction method and course content

2        History of water society nexus

2.1          History of water conflict and cooperation

2.2          Nile watershed

3        Water and space

3.1          Political geography and Physical geography of water

3.2          Environmental determinism, international and internationalized rivers

3.3          Rivers of North American subcontinent

4        Water and complexity theory

4.1          Survey to study of complex phenomena (terms, authors, "C" theories)

4.2          Watershed as an open system

4.3          Case study - Mekong river

5        Introduction to the system International water law

5.1          Evolution of international water law

5.2          Customary norms of international laws and borders at international rivers as an emergent phenomena

6        International water treaties and judicial decisions

6.1          Water treaty - basic instrument of international water cooperation

6.2          Decision of the International court of Justice in the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros case

7        Water institutions

7.1          Role of international organizations (UN, ILA, ILC, UNESCO…)

7.2          RBOs in African Continent

8        Water: commodity or basic human right

8.1          Ownership of water in the religious and secular normative systems

8.2          Economic approach to water allocation and quest for Parreto-optimal distribution

8.3          Game theory and transboundary water allocation

8.4          Case study - watersheds of South America

9        Threats to transboundary watershed equilibrium

9.1          Equilibrium, sustainability and stressors

9.2          Basins at risk and evolving water institutions

9.3          Water infrastructure

9.4          Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya watershed and desiccation of Aral sea

10           Quantitative research of international watersheds and sources of water data

10.1        Geopolitical, socioeconomic and biophysical data

10.2        Software tools and decision support systems

10.3        Case study - Indus and Ganga-Brahmaputra-Mengha

11           Water as catalyst for peace or fuel to the war

11.1        Presentation of student case studies

11.2        General discussion

Last update: Landovský Jakub, PhDr. Mgr. et Mgr., Ph.D. (29.09.2012)