%0 Journal Article
%T A fragile hegemon, a fragile hegemonic discourse: a critical engagement with the hydropolitical complex and implications of south africa's hydropolitical environment for southern africa
%J African security
%D 2010
%A Jacobs, Inga
%V 3
%N 1
%P 21-45
%X ABSTRACT As a result of the water security dilemma in southern Africa and the relative scarcity of the resource in the region, several scholars have referred to southern Africa as a hydropolitical complex. Using a constructivist ontology, this paper attempts to illustrate the hydropolitical complex's strengths and weaknesses in both helping and hindering an understanding of transboundary water resources by emphasising that while state-centric and/or system level analyses may lend themselves to basin-wide cooperative strategies due to the manner in which water is prioritised as a strategic resource within a river basin and beyond a basin, it displays a limited utility in explaining subnational configurations. Using South Africa as a case study, and thereby opening up the black box of the region's most powerful state, the hydropolitical complex unveils its numerous weaknesses.<p />
%G 
%I Informa - Taylor and Francis Group
%@ 1939-2206
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19362201003608789