Geopolitics Quarterly

Geopolitics Quarterly

Theoretical Explanation of the Geopolitical Repercussions of Dam Construction Projects

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Rahim Shiwarak 1
Mostafa Ghaderi Hajat 2
Ebrahim Roumina 2
1 PhD Student of Political Geography, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Political Geography, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/igq.2026.544957.2084
Abstract
Extended Abstract     
Contemporary developments in the field of water resources, especially in transboundary watersheds, show that dam projects can no longer be analyzed simply as technical and development-oriented tools, but have become geopolitical mechanisms for redefining power, identity, and diplomacy relations at different spatial levels. This study, with the aim of explaining and analyzing the geopolitical repercussions of dam construction at three levels of identity, security, and diplomacy, attempts to establish a theoretical and systematic link between the development-oriented policies of governments and their transnational consequences. In this regard, three key dam construction projects, including Turkey's Gap Project in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin, Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, and China's Chain of Dams in the Mekong River Basin, are examined with an analytical-comparative approach. Drawing on critical geopolitics and structural hydropolitics, this study presents an integrated model that is based on three key concepts: “hydropolitical identity,” “fluid geopolitics,” and “reverse diplomacy.” In this model, dam projects act as structural inputs in areas such as climate change, population pressures, international water law, and regional regimes, and through identity, geopolitical, and diplomatic mechanisms, they lead to multilevel repercussions; in a way that they lead to identity and social crises on a micro scale, to intensification of interstate tensions on a medium scale, and to challenging the international legal and institutional order of water on a macro scale. The findings of the study show that the GAP project in Turkey has led to a redefinition of national identity and strengthening of the country’s structural power vis-à-vis its downstream neighbors. The Grand Renaissance Dam has challenged Egypt's historical and hegemonic position in the Nile Basin and has established a new pattern of geopolitical bargaining; and China's dam projects in the Mekong have strengthened its geopolitical influence in Southeast Asia by gradually making downstream countries dependent. Overall, the results of the study show that transboundary dams have multi-layered impacts that go beyond the logic of development, and the proposed conceptual model can be used as an efficient framework for analyzing hydropolitical projects at national, regional, and international scales. 
Keywords
Hydro-Politics
Dam Construction
Identity
Power

Subjects

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Geopolitics Quarterly
Volume 22, Issue 1
Spring 2026
Pages 81-110

  • Receive Date 06 September 2025
  • Revise Date 31 January 2026
  • Accept Date 02 May 2026