Pakistan’s representation of transboundary water as a security issue

Abstract

The South Asia region is one of the most unstable in the world, having experienced multiple wars. In recent years, water disputes have intensified between this region's countries, including Pakistan and India, as water is intertwined with their security and has been securitized. Indeed, securitization is one of the strategies that has the power of representation of water as a security issue. The study examines how Pakistan has represented the Indus transboundary waters as a security issue through linguistic constructs, especially to motivate domestic audiences.

From ‘merchants and ministers’ to ‘neutral brokers’? Water diplomacy aspirations by the Netherlands – a discourse analysis of the 2011 commissioned advisory report

“…The discourse analysis techniques and methodology applied in this paper offer a linked and manageable set of such tools. There is other emerging work on applying metaphor analysis and discourse analysis broadly to water governance and diplomacy (Ison et al, 2015;Rigi & Warner, 2021). Application to branding and aid-and-trade agendas would be a next step.…”