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The Geopolitics of Hydropower in Central Asia: the Syr Darya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Eelke P. Kraak
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Summary

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The government of Kyrgyzstan has embarked on an ambitious hydropower development programme on the transboundary Syr Darya River, which has provoked strong opposition from downstream Uzbekistan. The programme is driven by the alignment of actual energy concerns with interests of the national hydraulic elites and the global politics of project finance, which provides a logic for dams that may exacerbate existing geopolitical tensions across the region.

Keywords

Critical geopoliticshydro-politicstransboundary riversdamshydropowerCentral AsiaSyr Darya RiverKyrgyzstanwater wars
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 15 , April 2012 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

References

Notes

1 A good if dated overview of the conflict with perspectives from both sides can be found in Sievers, E. W. (2001). See also “Water, conflict and regional security in Central Asia.” New York University Environmental Law Journal, 10, 356 and Kemelova, D., & Zhalkubaev, G. (2003). “Water, Conflict, and Regional Security in Central Asia Revisited.” New York University Environmental Law Journal, 11, 479-502.

2 Kaplan, R. D. (2001). The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the dreams of the post Cold War (p. 224). New York: Vintage Press and Homer- Dixon, T. F. (1999). Environment, scarcity and violence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

3 Mitchell, T. (2002). Rule of experts: Egypt, techno-politics, modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 44.

4 Worster, D. (1985). Rivers of empire: water, aridity and the growth of the American West. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

5 See, for example, Toal, G. (1996). Critical geopolitics: the politics of writing global space. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.