Applying Lessons from the Aral Sea Basin: The Role of Non-State Actors

Abstract

The break-up of the Soviet Union has resulted in unprecedented political and physical transfigurations of several water basins. The disintegration of the Soviet Union transformed the Aral Sea Basin into an international one in which the five Central Asian successor states became stakeholders. The unsettling of political borders in the Soviet Union has likewise raised the number of international stakeholders in the Caspian Basin from two states to five. While the Caspian Sea Basin has been plagued by conflict in which the littoral states have pursued independent policies to exploit and utilize the resources of the Caspian Basin, the riparian states of the Aral Sea Basin have engaged in rapid cooperation to design new institutional agreements for resource management. This chapter highlights the role of third parties such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), bilateral aid agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in building regional institutions for resource management in the Aral Sea Basin. By focusing on the role of transnational linkages, this chapter then offers lessons from the Aral Sea Basin for the Caspian Sea Basin concerning the process of institution building.