Power and Dams in Central Asia

The purpose of this research is to analyse and understand the role of state power in transboundary water relations, providing an in–depth analysis of the evolution of interstate relations in Central Asia in the field of water in the period 1991-2011. Taking as a case study the planned construction of the Rogun and Kambarata dams in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the research looks at the various forms of overt and covert power shaping interstate relations and at the way hegemonic and counter-hegemonic measures are put in place in an international river basin. The overarching hypothesis driving this study is that the intimate correlation between the concepts of power and hegemony can offer key insights to the analysis and understanding of transboundary water relations. While, on the one hand, the analytical focus is placed on state power, on the other hand, hegemonic and counter-hegemonic tactics represent the ways in which power is wielded and observed. This research makes an original contribution to the literature on hydropolitics in Central Asia, offering fresh theoretical interpretations to the subjects of power and counter-hegemony in the Aral Sea basin and presenting the original “circle of hydro-hegemony”, an analytical framework in which the various forms of power are “connective” in the function of hegemony. A further value is added by three timelines expressly created for the research and that represent, at the time of writing, the most detailed reference-supported collection of events of this kind for the Central Asian region in the period 1991-2011.