Boundaries of Cooperation:Cyprus, de Facto Partition, and the Delimitation Oftrans Boundary Resource Management

As a developing international norm, the process of managing transboundary resources represents a significant opportunity for the development of peaceful cooperation through equitable and sustainable means-and yet, paradoxically, this management process has the power also to create new tensions and reinforce pre-existing divisions amongst interested parties. This book explores the manifestations of this contradiction in the de facto partitioned state of Cyprus. How has transboundary resource management operated across Cyprus's de facto boundary? Why have problem-solving mechanisms, formed to deal with some transboundary resources, failed to achieve success in connection with others? Has it been possible to de-link resource conflict issues from the protracted political conflict, so that the former could be resolved without reference to the latter?

<p class=copymedium>This book provides the most comprehensive demonstration yet that post-partition Cyprus has exhibited a number of islands of cooperation over transboundary resource management and that, under certain politico-geographical conditions, the Cyprus conflict has not been unchanging and intractable. Of equal importance, however, it identifies an increasingly diverse and complex form of 'transboundary relations' that have coexisted with, and have been directly related to, a central cleavage over the political economy of recognition. 'Cooperation' has become, both for the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities, a matter of judging its importance in terms of potential gains/losses. It is demonstrated that, as with a majority of partitioned states, transboundary resource management in Cyprus is patently concerned with configurations of power, transboundary resource needs, the role of interests and ideas, and the functions of the partition boundary itself. Set within this framework, transboundary resources in Cyprus appear increasingly prevalent in the island's affairs and represent a potentially critical focus both for future cooperation and conflict. While this book does not blindly offer a prescription for the resolution of this dilemma, it seeks to enhance what has been a surprisingly circumscribed understanding not only of cooperation within and across the boundaries of Cyprus, but also of the limits to that cooperation.