This working paper presents the proceedings of an international workshop on water policies, held on January 2016 in (Delhi) and brought together 25 participants. It was supported by a number of partners (Centre for Policy Research, Centre de Sciences Humaines, Institut Français of Pondicherry, UMI i-GLOBES CNRS/University of Arizona, ANR ENGIND, ANR BLUEGRASS, Indo French Water Network et Institut de recherche pour le Développement). The research focused on comparisons between different case studies in a range of countries (USA, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Mexico, France and India), adopting an approach situated at the crossroads of geography and sociology. This international dimension proves particularly appropriate for a study of ‘water regimes’ as is consubstantial to their development: beyond the models often identified as “national’, from the 19th century onwards, we can identify rationales of transfer involving knowledge, expertise, skills and trained agents. From the beginning of the 20th century these models have to be included in the complexity of potential circulations: North-South transfers, as well as South-North and South-South transfers. The workshop covered the following topics: water regime transformations, situations where dominant doxa is challenged, the socio-historic transformations of the ‘Hydrocracies’ with emergence of a new generation of water professionals.