ABSTRACT
Many contemporary water problems emerge from a complex coupling of natural and human systems. These “wicked” problems defy traditional problem-solving techniques and require professionals to engage in inclusive fact-value conversations and collective decision-making processes with experts from other disciplines as well as with stakeholders with local knowledge (i.e., they need to practice what we call Water Diplomacy). The practice of Water Diplomacy requires drawing upon four domains of knowledge: episteme, phronesis, techne, and praxis. For water professionals looking to engage in Water Diplomacy, we argue that effective synthesis and application of these domains of knowledge requires principled pragmatism. The vision of principled pragmatism we offer seeks to move away from the dichotomy of “being pragmatic” or “being ideological” by focusing on how to transform ideas to action given the constraints and capacities of the problem context. It recognizes that a strict adherence to principles without pragmatism is often not actionable and that pure pragmatism exercised without guiding principles is not sustainable and is unlikely to be equitable. We highlight three archetypes of professional practice from the literature - the Honest Broker, the Humble Analyst, and the Democratic Professional - that identify concrete modes of practice for Water Diplomats seeking to understand how they can apply these ideas in negotiated approaches to resolving complex water issues.
