2.2.2. Actors and Driving Force

Global TWC is the result of conscious and purposeful interaction between actors. Under the influence of multidimensional proximity, the cooperative subjects jointly promote the deepening of water cooperation. This process has shaped the spatial patterns of TWC in the Post-Cold War era. The formation and deepening of TWC is usually a bilateral or even multilateral process. Cooperation among and within various actors, including the states, international organizations, and other organizations, shapes the pattern of global TWC. Among them, we argue that the states are the most important actors, which have a rational behavior, and their participation in global governance is based on the analysis logic of "costbenefit". International organizations are also the basic unit of global governance and have independent status in participating in international affairs, but they have a certain degree of "idealism" in their goals and behaviors, so they are slightly less rational. Compared with state actors and international organizations, other organizations or agencies are usually affiliated with states and have limited participation in water cooperation. For example, private actors represented by companies or corporations are actually representatives or executors of the will and decision-making of the states in TWC affairs, and the TWC issue will ultimately be resolved at the national, regional, or international level. Therefore, we argue that the success of TWC depends on the willingness and ability of state actors to cooperate in this field.

The cooperative willingness is the inclination or preference shown by the actor after a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and costs in achieving the goal of making cooperative commitments or fulfilling cooperative obligations in TWC affairs; and the cooperative ability is the actual conditions and level of the actor in undertaking costs in order to obtain benefits. When actors cooperate in transboundary water issues, their willingness and ability to constitute the independent variables of the result together, and the combination of the two constitutes sufficient conditions for this result. Thus, ability without willingness, or vice-versa, is logically and practically insufficient to produce TWC behavior. For example, the reason why China and the EU can play a leading role in regional TWC is closely related to their high willingness and ability to cooperate; while many emerging countries have a high willingness to participate in TWC, their limited cooperation ability makes it impossible to achieve effective water cooperation with relevant actors. Cooperative willingness and cooperative ability drive the establishment and formation of TWC among and within state and non-state actors, but both of these are affected by multidimensional proximity. Geographical, economic, organizational, and colonial proximity are sufficient conditions for the willingness and ability of the actors to cooperate. That is, proximities not only act individually on TWC, but also promote the development of the actor's cooperative willingness and cooperative ability through appropriate combinations, which could further have a positive effect on the formation and intensity of TWC.

#### **3. Data and Methods**

#### *3.1. Research Area*

As more and more countries participate in the TWC, the geographic coverage of TWC events spans the globe. The main analysis of the article focuses on water cooperation activities in the Post-Cold War era, mainly involving 152 countries. Except for historical countries including Czechoslovakia, SFR Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia, as well as Serbia and Montenegro, other countries are shown in Figure 2. These countries are divided by continents: Asia (45 countries), Africa (45 countries), Europe (35 countries), North America (11 countries), South America (10 countries), and Oceania (two countries).

**Figure 2.** Spatial distribution of countries participating in TWC.
