Routledge Water Diplomacy Handbook Now Available
The open access, recently published Routledge Handbook of Water Diplomacy offers a comprehensive guide to understanding and practicing water diplomacy while navigating the art and science of building relationships, negotiating shared interests, and managing complex water challenges across physical, political, and societal boundaries. The handbook provides practical, actionable insights for addressing water conflicts and fostering cooperation in an era marked by rising scarcity. Its dual-pathway structure, “Working Together” and “What Matters and Why,” helps readers explore water diplomacy through both professional roles and thematic lenses such as trust-building, adaptive learning, process design, and uncertainty management. Drawing on real-world cases from transboundary river basins to community-scale systems, the book demonstrates how water diplomacy can lead to scientifically grounded, socially inclusive, and politically feasible water solutions.
WRRC Director Sharon B. Megdal contributed Chapter 43 of the handbook, “Factors That Contribute to Successful Diplomatic Outcomes: Case Study of the Colorado River Basin Cross-Boundary Institution.” Megdal references this contribution in her most recent Reflections essay that is published in the current edition of the Weekly Wave. The case study highlights the factors that have supported negotiations and agreements within the Colorado River Basin under stressed hydrologic conditions and shares insights into the structure and processes of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) regarding Colorado River Basin transboundary diplomacy.