The Kura-Aras River Basin faces growing water security challenges driven by climate change, increasing water demand, and pollution. Yet, fragmented governance, political tensions, and limited regional cooperation undermine effective management of shared water resources.
Drawing on lessons from the Euphrates-Tigris Basin, this paper argues that incremental, technically focused cooperation can provide a pragmatic pathway towards more integrated water governance, even amid geopolitical tensions.
The paper recommends harmonising data and monitoring standards, institutionalising technical exchanges, strengthening science-policy cooperation, and supporting multi-track water diplomacy. These measures can help build trust, improve regional water security, and lay the foundations for more coordinated basin-wide governance.
Without coordinated action, these dynamics risk locking the basin into a slow-moving crisis in which restoration costs escalate and political incentives for collective responsibility diminish
This paper was written by Arda Bilgen (LSE Middle East Center), Nata Gogia, Davit Khachatryan (American University in Armenia) , Farhad Mukhtarov (Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Douwe van der Meer.
Photo credits: Mushegh Hakobyan on Unsplash