ABSTRACT

During the process of bridging conflicting water interests, cooperation and conflict tend to co-exist. The main aim of this research is to identify the reason behind the intensified water relationship between China and Kazakhstan. In this regard, the main research question is: what are the barriers hindering the implementation of Sino-Kazakhstan water allocation cooperation? In order to answer this question, the research applies a qualitative analysis approach to assemble the crucial descriptors that allow the main barriers to be categorized, such as appreciation of water, initial willingness, institutional conflict resolution, and bureaucratic system constraints. This is intended to provide an assessment of the motivation, organization, and implementation of Sino-Kazakhstan transboundary water management, based on interdisciplinary literature on water management and international law. This research ultimately finds that the opposite interests, reluctance, ambiguity in the legal framework, and poor intra-governmental coordination negatively impact the implementation of Sino-Kazakhstan water allocation cooperation.