Affiliation: University of Arizona
City of residence: Tucson, Arizona
Assigned Mentor: Helen Ingram
Research area: My research analyses how water resources are a problem in international relations. While there is no global authority beyond the state, water itself has no boundaries, and underground water is unequally distributed; rivers and lakes do not respect national boundaries. This creates opportunities for nations to cooperate through treaties; however, this is not always possible and often leads to conflicts. I am focused on the Mexico and the United States boundary rivers, especially the Colorado River. Although these two countries have a well-established series of agreements to distribute the water of Colorado, I aim to tease out the political processes behind these rules. I aim to find out who are the groups beyond governments, who have made this possible or prevent more comprehensive rules, especially in the current century, in the context of water scarcity in the river. As sources of data for my research, I draw on public government statements, treaty texts, news sources and opinions from people who are involved in these issues. I also look at water data that both countries have collected to better monitor how much water there is in the river and how they distribute it among their territories.