Introduction
Over the years, we have been receiving bad news from Africa in terms of political crisis and its implications over society and environment. A wave of political independency started in the 70’s in the continent, which did not bring the peace and prosperity as advertised by revolutionary forces, for instance, in Angola after formal independence, the three national revolutionary groups that fought against Portugal began fighting each other for control over government institutions (Visentini 2002). Counties in the continent received a large sum of money from former colonizers, aligned countries, and international institutions to build the necessary infrastructure for development. However, the instability of the ruling institutions persisted, and in some cases worsened due to external pressures brought by the structural changes in the international system due to decolonization processes and the oil crisis in the 70s and 80s.
In this context, natural resources were an essential key in one hand for internal development and for another one to the voracity of African rulers and their international partners in business to produce cash for themselves (Deegan 2008). The competing demands for African natural resources produced a high inequality in benefits distribution and the lack of priority for some uses such as the use of water in familiar farming (very strong and traditional in Africa) and domestic uses. In addition to anthropic causes mentioned, other sources of pressure as population growth, unsustainable and irrational use of water and an increase in pollution sources adds to the serious situation of water stress in Africa.
Direct consequences of high pressure and competing claims over water is an unprecedented increase in hunger and thirst rates, leading the continent to a state of food and water insecurity to an already full menu of all sorts of insecurities. In this vein, in the 80s and 90s we observe the proliferation of research agendas claiming the existence of a causal relationship between water scarcity and the occurrence of violent conflict between states because of local instabilities and water stress (Homer-Dixon 2006).
However, worth noting that such research agendas fail to provide empirical evidence to make a good case in proving the existence of such relation, even to the point that the formulated hypothesis are impossible to test due to its large and undetermined spectrum of study and the complexity involving international watercourses .
As a matter of fact, the tendencies we see in the political and legal international arenas point to the opposite, meaning that countries sharing scarce water resources tend to engage in cooperative behavior to resolve saliences related to water uses, which might be observed by the proliferation of water -related treaties and the insignificant number of violent conflicts (Wolf 1998).
Recent studies have shown that there are factors that contribute to deeper solutions to the challenges related to shared water and joint water management, thus contributing to increase of political stability and the perception of water security in the region. Among these factors, we might include (1) the intensity of the interaction between countries; (2) the linked issues in their relationship; (3) the norms and institutions in terms of water usage developed within the basin communities due practice; and (4) the unchanging physical reality of the international basin (Gulbenkian 2013).
The Okavango River Basin defies both logics: that Africa is a constant source of bad news and that water scarcity will lead states inevitably to violent conflicts. The Okavango case presents water conflicting uses and scarcity in an international basin formed by Angola , Botswana , and Namibia . Despite of expectations over water uses, political saliences and great challenges in terms of internal institutional design and political instability, countries engaged in cooperative behavior towards sharing the benefits of water in the region, which has led them to the institutionalize the cooperation by the formation of the Permanent Commission of the Okavango River Basin (OKACOM) .
The central argument of this chapter is that as states deepen the cooperation process by institutionalizing water management systems will lead them to increase political stability in the international river basin to the point in which it forms a water security community as theorized by Deutsch et al. (1957) and Adler and Barnett (1998).
The theoretical framework in this chapter is built upon three dimensions that lead to the formation of a security community in the international basin: (1) political communication; (2) machinery of enforcement, and (3) popular habits of compliance. The formation of a security community in the international basin setting has a positive direct impact on water and food security in the region, which spills over to shared factors such as culture, economy or security concerns, thus leading to an increase in societal security as a whole (Adler 1997).
Our challenge in this chapter is to deliver a comprehensive analysis that revolves around objective and subjective interests to the formation of a security community. To this end, the application of the theoretical framework as proposed is subject to a clear methodological approach of deductive nature in which the Okavango River Basin case is tested. The research technique used is the process tracing that will help the reader to understand the interaction of causal conditions between the initial moment of conflicting positions towards water usage in the basin to the formation of the OKACOM, and the identification of the three dimensions leading to the emergence of a security community.1
The structure of the chapter consists of presenting an introductory literature review that sets the context for the development of the theoretical framework that includes the issues of water scarcity ; conflict and cooperation settings in a water basin context; and international and water security theories. The following part of the chapter consists of the conceptualization of a security community and the ideas revolving it in terms of objective and subjective interests. Upon establishing the theoretical dimension, the empirical part of the chapter unveils important evidences and implications for the formation of interests, norms and institutions, and instruments that the Okavango case brings to theory. Finally, the conclusion presents the findings, challenges, and directions for future research.
Literature Review: Water, Cooperation and Security
The international community tends to agree upon the fact that demands over water resources have been growing although that the quantity of water available in the planet is a constant variable (Barlow 2009; Gleick 1993).
It is precisely in the context of great pressure on the use of available water resources and the increasing recognition of its vital necessity for survival of all species that we observe the emergence of a growing literature and research...