Virtual Water, Equivocal Law, Actual Hegemony
: Expanding the Framework of Hydro-Hegemony to Inform Virtual Water Trade and International Law

Student thesis: Master's ThesisMaster of Science

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the relationship between virtual water trade, international law, and hydro-hegemony through an extensive expansion of the Framework of Hydro-Hegemony introduced by Zeitoun and Warner in 2006. It seeks to understand how certain forms and understandings of water are prioritised in scholarship and policy and how this priortisation impacts virtual water trade realities and power over water resources. It further considers the implications that various international legal regimes have for virtual water trade and how international law might be employed in redressing misplaced water priorities and trade injustices.
This dissertation is informed by a review of international law and a comparative study of three virtual water trade relations: Peruvian asparagus exported to the United Kingdom; American cereals imported by Egypt; and Israeli agricultural produce consumed in the European Union. For each case study, the virtual water flows are identified and the “virtual hydro-hegemony” plotted. The relevant international laws are then considered and opportunities for non-hegemons to make use of international law to counter virtual hydro-hegemony contemplated.
Results indicate that virtual water flows are highly subject to hydro-hegemony, shaped by material, bargaining, and ideational powers. Further, blue water has a “conceptual hydro-hegemony” over other forms of water, including green and virtual water; this conceptual hydro-hegemony influences international law. International law could be a useful tool in countering the inequalities that arise from virtual hydro-hegemony if it can overcome the conceptual hydro-hegemonies currently limiting its scope. If weaker parties in virtual hydro-hegemonic relationships can see beyond conceptual hydro-hegemony, they will find an entirely new array of tools by which to counter virtual and other hydrohegemonies.
Date of Award2013
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of East Anglia
SupervisorMark Zeitoun (Supervisor)

Cite this

'