The Nile is not just a River in Egypt

In the period from 2009 to 2012 Egypt's tone and attitude towards its fellow upstream riparian states, in particular Ethiopia, regarding water management issues changed: rapprochement and cooperation increased. This study scrutinizes which causal factors are decisive in explaining this change. Two different International Relations theories are utilized to reveal these factors: the structural outside-in theory of neo-realism by Kenneth Waltz, and the domestic inside-out theory of liberal internationalism by Andrew Moravcsik. The study examines whether: 1) the changing of internal preferences as a result of the popular revolution on January 25th 2011 in Egypt, or 2) the differences in relative material (financial and economic) capabilities between both states altered the inter-state relations and consequently caused a change in water management relations between Egypt and Ethiopia. The study argues that Ethiopia's increased capabilities were decisive in changing Egypt's attitude; the changing internal preferences resulting from the revolution played only a marginal role.