ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contribute to the understanding of how the complexity of power relations and politics challenges collective action efforts in the Nile Basin by examining those efforts since the 1990s. What constitutes the 'collective' in Nile Basin has not been constant over time. There have been numerous changes in nature of the states, their affiliations to superpowers, and even the number of state entities that constitute the collective over the last half century. Central to challenge of establishing wider collective action in basin, in spite of willingness expressed, were pre-existing 'rules of the game', as reflected in agreements signed in 1929 and 1959. The emergence of this new trilateral arrangement represented a new form of nested collective action within the basin. A more fluid set of actors emerged in 1990s, but early efforts to build on this situation and establish a common platform for cooperation and collective action have remained subject to historical realities and current political realities.
