Filling the Institutional Void? Exploring Governance, Conflict, and Cooperation in River Basins

Growing concerns over water scarcity around the globe suggest that countries need to manage water resources in a more effective and cooperative manner. At the same time, however, water scarcity increases the risk that countries sharing water basins engage in opportunistic behavior and conflict. In this dyadic study, we seek to shed new light on the emergence of water conflict and cooperation between countries by clarifying the role of treaties and specialized river basin organizations as two forms of institutional mechanisms governing their water interactions. Adopting an institutional voids perspective and using a unique longitudinal data set covering all interactions between countries located at the world’s 263 major international river basins, we show that contractual voids (i.e., underspecified treaties) and organizational voids (i.e., underdeveloped river basin organizations) are differently related to conflict and cooperation. Moreover, we find that these two voids interact in influencing the emergence of conflicts (but not cooperation). Overall, our study answers recent calls to conduct management research that contributes to a better understanding of how to broaden our sight in order to deal with societal “grand challenges.” We discuss implications for scholars, managers, and policymakers.