The Critical Geopolitics of Waterscapes: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Development of Gwadar Port
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Authors
Hasni, Akif
Date
2025-05-30
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Political Science , Development , Critical Geopolitics , China , Pakistan , Waterscapes , Political Ecology of Waterscapes
Alternative Title
Abstract
The development of Gwadar Port is the flagship project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), one of the six major corridors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This dissertation aims to draw attention to the power and politics that animate China’s development of Gwadar, and the important role they play in shaping Gwadar’s waterscapes, which refers to its water infrastructure, access to water and its waterways, and the conflicts generated and intensified by changes to them. In doing so, it argues that Gwadar’s waterscapes are critically shaped by the power and politics that underly China-led development in Pakistan. Drawing on literature from critical geopolitics, development studies, political economy, and political ecology, the dissertation introduces a novel conceptual framework called the critical geopolitics of waterscapes. The framework posits that waterscapes are profoundly shaped by critical geopolitics, referring to a holistic reading of geopolitics that extends beyond the state and state-to-state interactions to include questions around power, discourse, development, ecology, and political economy. The framework helps furnish the claim that China’s development of Gwadar is geopolitics. The dissertation is informed by field research in Pakistan including semi-structured interviews with government officials and local residents. The dissertation reveals that China’s development efforts in Gwadar have deeply shaped its waterscapes, leading to a dramatic increase in water stress, and a substantial reduction in local access to water and waterways, while also threatening livelihoods of local Fisherfolk communities. Wholescale changes to Gwadar’s waterscapes have thus generated new and intensified existing contestations around water, leading to civilian protests, as well as violent attacks by Balochi separatists against CPEC infrastructure and personnel. The dissertation also finds that China’s development efforts in Gwadar are driven by vital Chinese interests, such as a port on the Arabian sea to shore up its import capacity, particularly of oil. These findings indicate that the success of China’s development efforts in Pakistan hinges on its ability to gain broader support from, and satisfy demands of, local communities. They also indicate that ecological outcomes, such as those around water, are inexorably linked to the power and (geo)politics underlying development initiatives.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International