Sabine is a project manager at adelphi – a think tank and public policy consulting on climate, environment and development. Prior to that she worked as a researcher at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ and as a lecturer at the Global and European Studies Institute in Leipzig, Germany. Her work focuses on international water cooperation and resource governance, the linkages between water insecurity and conflict, vulnerability, and adaptation to environmental change. Sabine studied African Studies, Political Science and Education at the University of Leipzig and the University of Stellenbosch. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Leipzig.
She received a PhD scholarship from the Foundation of German Business. Her main academic interests comprise political, legal and institutional frameworks in water management, river basin cooperation and the performance of River/Lake Basin Organizations, the role of water in conflicts and International Relations Theory. Her regional specialisations include southern Africa and the MENA region.
Selected publications
- Pohl, Benjamin; Annika Kramer, William Hull, Sabine Blumstein, Iskandar Abdullaev, Jusipbek Kazbekov, Tais Reznikova, Ekaterina Strikeleva, Eduard Interwies and Stefan Görlitz (2017) Rethinking Water in Central Asia. The costs of inaction and benefits of water cooperation. Bern: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). https://www.adelphi.de/en/publication/rethinking-water-central-asia
- Blumstein, Sabine und Susanne Schmeier 2017: Disputes over International Watercourses: Can River Basin Organizations Make a Difference?. In: Management of Transboundary Water Resources under Scarcity . New Jersey: World Scientific, 191-236.
- Sabine Blumstein (2017) Managing Adaptation: International Donors’ Influence on International River Basin Organizations in Southern Africa. In: International Journal of River Basin Management, Vol. 15(4), 461-473.
- Blumstein, Sabine und Susanne Schmeier (2017) Disputes over International Watercourses: Can River Basin Organizations Make a Difference?. In: Management of Transboundary Water Resources under Scarcity . New Jersey: World Scientific, 191-236.
- Blumstein, Sabine, Benjamin Pohl and Dennis Tänzler (2016) Water and Climate Diplomacy. Integrative Approaches for Adaptive Action in Transboundary River Basins. adelphi: Berlin. https://www.adelphi.de/en/publication/water-and-climate-diplomacy
- Schmeier, Susanne, Andrea Gerlak and Sabine Blumstein (2016) Clearing the Muddy Waters of Shared Watercourses Governance: Conceptualizing international River Basin Organizations, in: International Environmental Agreements, Vol 16(4), 597-619. S
- chulze, Sabine & Schmeier, Susanne (2012) Governing environmental change in international river basins: the role of river basin organizations, International Journal of River Basin Management, Vol. 10(3), 229-244.