River Basin Organizations in the Global Water Discourse: An Exploration of Agency and Strategy

This article describes the role of transnational policy entrepreneurs in producing and maintaining the global discourse of river basin organizations-a key element of global water governance. It takes an agency approach and draws on three streams of literature-discourse analysis, political ecology, and political economy-to derive strategies that transnational actors may use to advance discourse. To illustrate agency and strategies, it draws from a wide variety in types of RBOs across the globe. It finds that global knowledge networks exhibit the most expansive reach, serving as the oil in the machine of the global RBO discourse. This finding raises important questions around networks in the broader global water governance discourse as well as compelling questions related to governance.