During the process it became clear that transnational management of Amu Darya’s water resources does not figure prominently on political agendas of the Netherlands and Belgium. This is mostly due to the massive security challenges in Afghanistan, which are considered to be of more immediate political relevance. According to the process organisers this actually confirms the very need to make policymakers more aware of the longer term challenges.
For policymakers in the Netherlands and Belgium, immediate security concerns in Afghanistan are of higher priority than long-term concerns about regional tensions related to water management, and the latter therefore seems to fall off the agenda. This is partly explained by the fact that policymaking and research take place in different and unaligned timeframes. Where policy development and implementation processes are typically designed in line with election terms of 3-5 years, the research community prefers to work with a longer-term perspective as it is driven by the need for credibility based on evidence through longer-term analysis of trends. For research to make sense to policymakers and for policymakers to provide directions for researchers, these time frames need to be synchronised.