The World Bank (WB) has played an erratic role in international water negotiations. It gained international recognition for mediating the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty,1 but has only replicated this successful mediation by facilitating a set of water-sharing agreements for the Aral Sea in the 1990s.2 Since then it has struggled to bring about a basin-wide cooperative framework for the Nile. The WB’s attempts to negotiate, oversee feasibility studies, and fund development projects has followed a similar erratic path.
The WB also confronted a growing global civil society that has forced it to undergo a democratization or “greening” process.3 Through expanding opportunities for multi-stakeholder participation, transparency, and accountability, the WB was pushed to be more environmentally conscious. However, the greening process can also generate several perverse outcomes. Specifically, the WB can become preoccupied with assuring stakeholder involvement, transparency, and accountability, while discounting its role as mediator. Mediators are...