Publication

This article focuses on the question of how conflicts over the use of scarce water resources can be mitigated. The aim of the article is to improve the transformation of international river conflicts through the systematic assessment of the linkages between the local, national, international and global level. The main argument of the article is that these linkages are often neglected in the analysis of international river conflicts, based upon which faulty mitigation strategies are then initiated. The chapter is structured as follows: first the authors introduce a conceptual model with the physical water linkages between the sub-national, national and international systems of an international river basin, as well as the political conflict or cooperation linkages between the same levels. The conceptual model is then applied to the case of the Nile Basin in the following section. The article concludes with a summary of the advantages of the linkage approach when attempting to mitigate water conflicts.