The Nile in Legal and Political Perspective

Between Change and Continuity

Series: 

Competition over the Nile watercourse is becoming a global crisis. As population growth, economic development, and urbanization increase the demand for water in the Nile Basin while climate change threatens its supply, the region faces a looming water crisis. An effective resolution of this multifaceted issue, which impacts 11 African countries, requires detailed multidisciplinary research. Until now the academic discourse regarding the Nile watercourse has been primarily dominated by monodisciplinary studies. This book fills that gap, providing a retrospective and prospective look at the Nile through multidisciplinary lenses—commingling history, hydro-politics, climate change, and law. It scrutinizes the legal and hydro-political trajectories of the Nile Basin, from the 4th century A.D. to 2022.
Copyright Year:
2024
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ISBN:
978-90-04-54986-9
Publication:
20 Oct 2023
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ISBN:
978-90-04-54985-2
Publication:
31 Oct 2023
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Mahemud E. Tekuya, JSD/Ph.D. (2022), McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, is a research and teaching assistant at Oregon State University. He has published extensively on the Nile River and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Table

List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction
1.1 The Global Water Crisis: Finite Supply, Growing Demand

1.2 The Looming Water Crisis in the Nile Basin

1.3 The Legal and Hydro-political Setting of the Nile Basin

1.4 Significance, Objective, and Organization of the Book


Part 1
Reconstructing the Legal and Hydro-political History of the Nile Basin
2 The Politics of the Nile Basin: Water Imperialism, Hydro-political Cold War, and Hegemonic Dominance
 Introduction

2.1 Pre-colonial Myths and Realities

2.2 The Nile in the Age of Colonialism: the Europeans Scramble for Nile, and the Tana Dam Concession

2.3 The Nile in the Age of Cold War: Hydro-political Rivalry and the Scramble for Dominance

 Conclusion


3 The Status of Colonial Nile Waters Treaties under International Law
 Introduction

3.1 The Colonial Nile Waters Treaties

3.2 Immediate Post-colonial Dispute over the Colonial Nile Waters Treaties

3.3 The Colonial Nile Waters Treaties and State Succession

3.4 Fundamental Change of Circumstances

 Conclusion


4 Legal Arguments Based on the 1959 Agreement and Customary International Law
 Introduction

4.1 The 1959 Agreement

4.2 Customary International Watercourses Law

 Conclusion


Part 2
Post-Cold War Attempts to Change or Maintain the Status Quo
5 Between Unilateralism and Cooperation: the Nile Basin in the Post-Cold War Era
 Introduction

5.1 Bilateral Cooperative Initiatives

5.2 Multilateral Cooperative Initiatives

5.3 Back to Competition: Unilateralism as Post-Cold War Modus Operandi

 Conclusion


6 The Cooperative Framework Agreement
 Introduction

6.1 Drafting and Negotiations of the cfa: Sisyphean Endeavors?

6.2 Basic Principles of the Cooperative Framework Agreement

6.3 Hydro-political Implications

 Conclusion


Part 3
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Current Dispute over the Existing Nile Water Agreements
7 The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Declaration of Principles
 Introduction

7.1 The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: the Beginning of De-Facto Change in the Status Quo?

7.2 The Declaration of Principles on gerd: a New Paradigm?

 Conclusion


8 Sink or Swim: Unlocking the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Dispute
 Introduction

8.1 First Filling and Annual Operation of the gerd

8.2 The gerd Washington Talks: Illuminating the Sticking Points

8.3 The Role of the United States in the gerd Talks under International Law

8.4 Post-Washington Negotiations

8.5 The Way Forward: towards Unlocking the gerd Dispute

 Conclusion


Part 4
Looking into the Future: towards Building a Flexible Legal and Institutional Framework in the Nile Basin
9 Governing the Nile under Climatic Uncertainty: the Need for Climate-Proofed Basin-wide Treaty
 Introduction

9.1 Building Flexibility into Treaty Regimes

9.2 Adapting the Nile Basin to Climate Change: Analysis of Treaty Flexibility

9.3 The gerd Negotiations: towards a Flexible Tripartite Agreement?

9.4 The Way Forward: towards a Basin-wide Climate-Proofed Treaty

 Conclusion


10 Overall Conclusion


Bibliography

Index

Policymakers, researchers, scholars, and students interested in the sustainable management of international watercourses, the use and allocation of the Nile River, the legal regime governing the Nile Basin, or the history and geopolitics of North-eastern Africa.
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Publisher:
Brill | Nijhoff
Language:
English
Pages:
xviii, 333 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004549869

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