Abstract

The existing literature on the blue economy has focused mainly on oceans, seas and coastal areas, an approach that creates significant conceptual limitations for landlocked countries that lack direct access to the sea. In order to address this gap, this study proposes the concept of Coastless Blue Economy (CBE) as a geoeconomic framework to explain how landlocked countries participate in blue economy systems despite their lack of coastline. Using a conceptually-driven and integrative review of the scientific literature, this study synthesizes and analyzes studies related to the blue economy, landlocked countries, geoeconomy, transboundary water governance, trade connectivity and regional integration. The findings from the literature synthesis indicate that geographical landlockedness limits direct access to the sea, but does not necessarily prevent functional participation in blue economy networks. Accordingly, the proposed CBE framework is based on four main mechanisms, including exploitation and governance of domestic and transboundary water resources, geo-economics of corridors and trade connectivity, offshore access to ports and logistics networks, and hydro-digital technologies and infrastructure. Afghanistan is considered as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of this framework. The analysis shows that transboundary water resources, Afghanistan’s geographical location between Central and South Asia, potential access to regional corridors and external ports, and the development of hydro-digital technologies create capacities for the country to participate in a landlocked water economy; however, weak infrastructure, institutional constraints, geopolitical dependencies, and climate change risks remain significant challenges. By expanding the spatial boundaries of the water economy concept, this research provides a framework for analyzing and designing water economy strategies in landlocked countries.

Keywords

Coastless Blue Economy Landlocked Countries Geo-Economics Transboundary Water Afghanistan