Decolonising Water Diplomacy Research: Agency, Representation, Relationality
Feature-in-Progress
Guest Editors: Medha Bisht, Jenniver Sehring
Water diplomacy refers to the political processes and practices of preventing, mitigating, and resolving disputes over shared water resources. Such processes are often constrained by dominant interests and narrow perspectives of a few powerful actors. Transformative water diplomacy, as we understand it, is not only a process of empowering and representing diverse voices and transcending traditional negotiations by integrating the interests and needs of both state and non-state stakeholders in water cooperation but also rethinking established norms and embracing relational and holistic ways of thinking.
This special feature will focus on decolonizing water diplomacy studies by bringing the notion of transformative water diplomacy to the forefront. Decolonizing water diplomacy research means for us to critically examine and challenge the dominant knowledge systems, practices, and institutions of water diplomacy, acknowledging alternative ways of knowing and doing water diplomacy, and putting “diversity” and “inclusivity” in focus.
The special feature invites contributions that address certain neglected aspects in the current scholarly discourse on water diplomacy research:
- First, is the limited conversation between decolonial thought and research on water diplomacy and water conflict transformation. The key question in this context is to examine how everyday practices associated with indigenous wisdom (could) inform water diplomacy.
- Second, there is the lack of engagement with ontologies, epistemologies, and meanings that emerge from specific geo-cultural spaces. In this context, conceptual meanings associated with reconciliation and cooperation, as well as knowledge about “water” as such in indigenous cosmovision, hold importance for sustainable water use and water cooperation. This raises questions how it can be integrated into water diplomacy processes.
- Third, is the lack of critical perspectives in explaining and questioning contemporary regional and bilateral engagements from a decolonial lens and with a view to participation of non-traditional and non-human actors. In this context, youth engagement and legal personhood of rivers among others are not derivatives or alternatives offered by inclusive-participatory models, hinged on “colonial matrix of water governance,” but are constitutive elements of pluriversal water diplomacy stemming from decolonial thinking and indigenous relationalities that have existed outside/alongside the modern/colonial paradigm of water management. This area too is vital because much is being written on multi-actor, multi-track diplomacy. However, the relational paradigms that underpin such approaches need to be engaged with, and theorized appropriately in water diplomacy research.
- Fourth, is the need for emancipatory approaches, which make visible the human and non-human agency beyond the state. The scarcity of such work is noteworthy, especially considering the overwhelming focus on representation, agency, and rationality with respect to state actors. Constructs such as hydro-hegemony narrow the interpretation of power to purely rational frameworks, thus neglecting how practices can reconstruct the understandings of power as both productive and relational.
Against this backdrop, the special feature will be methodologically grounded in the notion of “ontological difference” and reflexivity, bringing different papers into dialogic conversations with one another. Engaging with plural epistemologies and ontologies and foregrounding them in decolonial thought will help us constructively engage with the existing scholarship of water diplomacy research. The special feature aims to combine innovative conceptual papers with in-depth case studies. It draws conceptual parallels between diplomacy and water and hopes to emancipate water diplomacy research from state-centric approaches into eclectic ways of knowing and understanding the world of water diplomacy. By anchoring itself to a methodological framework of border thinking, the special feature positions relational perspectives as legitimate entry points rather than as a peripheral alternative. In this regard, perspectives brought in by the authors from various geographical locations would be valuable and provide a relevant contribution to the academic discussion on the topic, while also highlighting the geopolitics of knowledge.
Background
This special feature resulted from discussions at the 7th Water and Peace Seminar on “Diplomacy, Dialogue, Discourses: Exploring potentials and challenges for inclusive water cooperation,” held in Kathmandu, Nepal, and online in March 2025 and is initiated within the project “Cross-regional learning for transformative water diplomacy (CroWD),” co-funded by the Water and Development Partnership Programme (WDPP).
Submission guidelines and timeline:
o Pre-submission inquiries to the guest editors are welcome (Medha Bisht: medhabisht@sau.ac.in; Jenniver Sehring: j.sehring@un-ihe.org)
o An online authors’ workshop will be held in mid-December to discuss draft proposals. Abstracts for this workshop can be sent directly to the guest editors until 01 November 2025.
o Final contributions can be submitted to Ecology and Society 1–28 February 2026.
The special feature invites contributions that address certain neglected aspects in the current scholarly discourse on water diplomacy research:
- First, is the limited conversation between decolonial thought and research on water diplomacy and water conflict transformation. The key question in this context is to examine how everyday practices associated with indigenous wisdom (could) inform water diplomacy.
- Second, there is the lack of engagement with ontologies, epistemologies, and meanings that emerge from specific geo-cultural spaces. In this context, conceptual meanings associated with reconciliation and cooperation, as well as knowledge about “water” as such in indigenous cosmovision, hold importance for sustainable water use and water cooperation. This raises questions how it can be integrated into water diplomacy processes.
- Third, is the lack of critical perspectives in explaining and questioning contemporary regional and bilateral engagements from a decolonial lens and with a view to participation of non-traditional and non-human actors. In this context, youth engagement and legal personhood of rivers among others are not derivatives or alternatives offered by inclusive-participatory models, hinged on “colonial matrix of water governance,” but are constitutive elements of pluriversal water diplomacy stemming from decolonial thinking and indigenous relationalities that have existed outside/alongside the modern/colonial paradigm of water management. This area too is vital because much is being written on multi-actor, multi-track diplomacy. However, the relational paradigms that underpin such approaches need to be engaged with, and theorized appropriately in water diplomacy research.
- Fourth, is the need for emancipatory approaches, which make visible the human and non-human agency beyond the state. The scarcity of such work is noteworthy, especially considering the overwhelming focus on representation, agency, and rationality with respect to state actors. Constructs such as hydro-hegemony narrow the interpretation of power to purely rational frameworks, thus neglecting how practices can reconstruct the understandings of power as both productive and relational.
Against this backdrop, the special feature will be methodologically grounded in the notion of “ontological difference” and reflexivity, bringing different papers into dialogic conversations with one another. Engaging with plural epistemologies and ontologies and foregrounding them in decolonial thought will help us constructively engage with the existing scholarship of water diplomacy research. The special feature aims to combine innovative conceptual papers with in-depth case studies. It draws conceptual parallels between diplomacy and water and hopes to emancipate water diplomacy research from state-centric approaches into eclectic ways of knowing and understanding the world of water diplomacy. By anchoring itself to a methodological framework of border thinking, the special feature positions relational perspectives as legitimate entry points rather than as a peripheral alternative. In this regard, perspectives brought in by the authors from various geographical locations would be valuable and provide a relevant contribution to the academic discussion on the topic, while also highlighting the geopolitics of knowledge.
Background
This special feature resulted from discussions at the 7th Water and Peace Seminar on “Diplomacy, Dialogue, Discourses: Exploring potentials and challenges for inclusive water cooperation,” held in Kathmandu, Nepal, and online in March 2025 and is initiated within the project “Cross-regional learning for transformative water diplomacy (CroWD),” co-funded by the Water and Development Partnership Programme (WDPP).
Submission guidelines and timeline:
o Pre-submission inquiries to the guest editors are welcome (Medha Bisht: medhabisht@sau.ac.in; Jenniver Sehring: j.sehring@un-ihe.org)
o An online authors’ workshop will be held in mid-December to discuss draft proposals. Abstracts for this workshop can be sent directly to the guest editors until 01 November 2025.
o Final contributions can be submitted to Ecology and Society 1–28 February 2026.