6. Reframing Transboundary Water Security

Water security is one of the main goals of transboundary water policies. The current approaches to framing and achieving water security in transboundary river basins, however, are unsatisfactory and unsuccessful. Several factors interfering with establishing water security are overlooked by current approaches, including securitization and social dynamics, as well as neglecting environmental needs. This chapter aims to reframe the transboundary water security (TWS) perspective toward a more comprehensive and integrated approach to providing security. The foundations of TWS are investigated by scrutinizing what security is in International Relations and water security research. The chapter discusses who the security referent objects of transboundary arrangements are, and what actions and policies are needed to provide security. The theoretical investigations reveal the four security referent objects of state, development, society, and the ecosystem. Besides, the sustainability of referent objects is synthesized in a novel analytical framework. Nexus security, as a holistic approach which focuses on the complexity of referent objects and considers both negative and positive security is also suggested as a means to provide water security. Finally, the effectiveness and applicability of the developed framework is evaluated through practical investigations into the security of Afghanistan’s transboundary river basins. The results indicate that Afghanistan has most frequently considered the state and development to be referent objects of security, through water nationalism, hydraulic missions, and populist rhetoric, making TWS less sustainable. In this regard, reframing water security and adopting a nexus security perspective may assist policymakers in better understanding the ways to establish security in transboundary river basins.