Pii: S0305-750x(00)00061-9

Ð International cooperation over the major rivers in South Asia has recently become much closer. Five agreements, signed in 1996 and 1997 against a background of greater regional economic and nongovernmental contact, could facilitate signi®cant progress to mitigate ̄ooding and drought, to provide a basis for greater regional cooperation, and to sustain irrigation expansion and industrial development. This paper identi®es past impediments to cooperation. It examines how new agreements seem to o€er negotiation on a wider range of issues than previously, and to expand the range of potential negotiating bodies beyond national governments to include subnational governments, private corporations, and nongovernmental organizations. Ó 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.