Hydropolitics is what societies make of it (or why we need a constructivist approach to the geopolitics of water) Online publication date: Wed, 31-Dec-2014
by Frédéric Julien
International Journal of Sustainable Society (IJSSOC), Vol. 4, No. 1/2, 2012
Abstract: Although the study of hydropolitics (i.e. the geopolitics of water) is mainly an offshoot of the discipline of International Relations (IR), the use of IR conceptual tools remains largely implicit in the literature. As a result, theoretical exploration has been very limited in hydropolitics and is usually cast within IR's traditional divide between realism and liberalism. This is problematic because the quest for a predictive and parsimonious science of politics that characterises mainstream IR theory may be overly rigid and too narrow a strategy to understand the full diversity exhibited by water-related interstate relations around the globe. With its anti-deterministic and pro-human agency stance, constructivism constitutes a promising alternative approach to hydropolitics that can be explored if theorisation is made explicit. In this regard, securitisation theory is one example of constructivism's great potential in hydropolitical analysis.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sustainable Society (IJSSOC):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook