Multi-track water diplomacy: current and potential future cooperation over the Brahmaputra River Basin

Abstract

This article analyzes key factors affecting transboundary water cooperation in the Brahmaputra River basin at multiple scales. The analysis of multi-track diplomacy reaffirms the potential of actor-inclusive approaches, arguing for a need to go beyond purely focusing on formal legal norms and consider the possibilities of cultural norms of informal processes of cooperation. Various ‘windows of opportunity’ exist in the current phase of the Brahmaputra basin’s development, leading to exploration of a Zone of Possible Effective Cooperation, arising from the effort to scale up multi-track initiatives as well as broader geo-political-economic changes happening across and beyond the basin.