ABSTRACT
Unlocking consistent, agile, and adaptable value creation in the management of shared natural resources is vital. The Water Diplomacy Framework has no qualms with underscoring that addressing water systems as solely bounded by natural factors, in cause–effect relationships that can be readily modeled, is a recipe for enduring conflict. No amount of expert-driven optimizing, long-range planning, can resolve on its own the competing and evolving economic and social demands over seemingly fixed availabilities of natural resources. Instead, an array of stakeholders needs to be empowered across the decision-making process to shape problem-framing, lead joint fact-finding, and unearth practical wisdom from monitoring and testing. Such experience is the catalyst to forge the kind of mutual learning necessary to develop lasting solutions that fully encompass the complexity of water networks crossing natural and political domains. This chapter underscores why the local, regional, national, and international actors and institutions involved in high-stake water conflicts, who choose to challenge rigid protocols and genuinely take the plunge to collaborate across jurisdictional and institutional scales, are rewarded by meaningful outcomes. Striking examples in extreme drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin, counter-intuitively turning water shortages into water surpluses, as well as enhancing border security through environmental restoration, remind us how to forge this mindset and results anywhere in the world.
