Blue Diplomacy – Water Security and Peace (Case of Switzerland)
Aneel Salman*
Water crisis is one of the most pressing political, economic and environmental issue of the 21st century. The world, particularly South Asia, needs more than just the same old-fashioned engineering and economic solutions to deal with micro and macro level water claims which are often at odds with each other. What is needed are policy-makers who are armed with multi-dynamic, collaborative and ratiocinative solutions. Rather than trying to ‘store’ water within controversial closed systems, water experts need to think of water as a relentlessly fluctuating and open-ended water complex.

Switzerland has a well-recognized record of international solidarity for peaceful and joint water management. As the water tower of Europe, Switzerland tries to be an exemplary upstream country. It has made considerable investments to deliver good water quality to its neighboring countries. This paper draws attention to Switzerland’s Rhine river case of blue diplomacy in the improvement of water security and its related peace, human rights, economic growth and environment protection aspects at various levels. As a ‘best practice example’, South Asia can learn a great deal from this country. The study emphasizes managing complex ‘blue’ networks, converting water into a flexible rather than fixed resource and advocates a water diplomacy framework for policy makers in devising water management strategies that are participatory and global.
* Dr. Aneel Salman is professor of Economics at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a Fulbright Scholar who has a doctorate in Climate Change Economics (USA) and post-doc from the University of Berne, Switzerland in water management. His research interests include climate and behavioural economics; institutional governance and public policy; and business management. He is the author of A Coastal Ecosystem and a People in Peril: The Story of Keti Bunder in Pakistan (2011).