MA in International Water Governance and Water Diplomacy
MA in International Water Governance and Water Diplomacy
Training location: Ludovika Campus, Budapest
The two year MA programme in International Water Governance and Water Diplomacy, starting September 2020, offers up-to-date, practice-oriented education for practicing and future water managers, diplomats, national and international civil servants engaged in transboundary or global environmental issues. Based on a blend of natural and social sciences, extensive field training and project-based team work, the programme is aimed to enable students to master complex water policy challenges, decision and conflict situations.
The aim of the 4-semester training is to produce Hungarian and foreign experts who, with the knowledge they have acquired, are able to carry out international tasks in international, EU and national water management organisations.
Why study international water governance and diplomacy?
While water war theories have been a popular feature of international politics for decades, reality shows that even bitter interstate tensions surrounding water tend to become a source of cooperation rather than conflict. The potent megatrends of our era, such as demographic change, urbanization or climate change, however, create new pressures on how countries manage water domestically and in their international relations. Scientific consensus suggests that the current water crisis is a crisis of governance. The root of the problem, therefore, lies not necessarily in the limited availability of water. Rather, how laws, policy and financial decisions on water are made, implemented and followed up by government and society. Such challenges surface with even greater force in intestate context where the action or inaction of a country may give rise to disproportionate negative impacts on the water resources available to others. Consequently, the knowledge of how to prevent, manage and resolve water conflicts at the domestic and international level will be a critical asset for the prosperity and stability of any nation in the 21st century.
University of Public Service and water
The Ludovika University of Public Service has been conceived as a comprehensive school of government encompassing all major fields of the management of a modern state: public administration, defence, law enforcement and diplomacy. Ludovika University of Public Service also boasts Hungary’s oldest higher education institution dedicated to water: the Faculty of Water Science, located in the city of Baja on the banks of the river Danube. In recent years, the Faculty has significantly expanded its research and educational activities reaching out to the political, policy, legal and institutional dimensions of water. Importantly, the Faculty also serves as the official retraining institution of the Hungarian water authorities that offers students a unique access to the daily practice of water management in the broader Danube basin. The MA programme has been developed by the Faculty’s Department of Water and Environmental Policy, seated in Budapest, that specialises in water governance.