Conflicts over International Waters

International river basins have become breeding grounds for conflicts among/between riparian states. The major traditionally discussed factors of conflict around international waters have been the riparian structure associated benefits and disadvantages, sovereignty notions, upstream-downstream diverging interests and regional power hierarchy. However, these factors are fairly stable for a long period of time in a given basin. These geopolitical or "space" centric explanations allocate too much emphasis on locations, thus draw unilinear and almost permanent conclusions. The basin states, instead of being passive recipients, keep interacting over resources as self-seeking political units for maximising their net benefits. This paper analyses these interactions through the example of Ganga water dispute between the two co-riparian nations - India and Bangladesh.