| Summary: | This study combines the strengths of historical studies and analytical approaches on transboundary
water interactions to establish an historical process perspective on transboundary waters. The study analytically
separates transboundary water cooperation, water diplomacy, and their broader political setting, and analyses their
interplay over a long period of time. The paper presents a detailed case study on the development and
transformation of Finnish-Russian transboundary water interactions over the last 100 years, with an emphasis on
Finland and its relationship with the Soviet Union/Russia after World War II. The setting remains relatively
understudied despite its intriguing characteristics and its importance to the pioneering of water cooperation
arrangements such as reciprocal compensation mechanisms. Using four distinct time periods, the study scrutinises
how water diplomacy actors, institutional developments, broader political environs, and historical occurrences have
ultimately led to the current cooperative setting. The findings emphasise the role played by societal trends in
steering politics and water diplomacy as well as in the crafting of transboundary water cooperation. They also
indicate how establishing an institutional basis for cooperation requires both political commitment and technical
expertise, often over a very long period of time. The findings demonstrate how the institutions of cooperation, once
they emerged, resulted in a rather self-governing operating body for everyday transboundary interaction, replacing
water diplomacy as the dominant means of interaction in the studied context. Analysing historical trajectories helps
to critically investigate our current discourses and practices and to understand the impact that broader societal
trends have on transboundary water interactions.
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