Governing an International Transboundary River: Opportunism, Safeguards, and Drought Adaptation in the Rio Grande

We extend Bednar’s theory of a robust federation to examine the factors and institutions influencing the effectiveness of transboundary water governance in an international river basin. We examine the evolution and performance of drought adaptation in the Rio Grande/Bravo river basin of the United States and Mexico—two federal countries. Droughts and water shortages since 1990 have triggered opportunistic behavior by resource users and their …