Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T17:39:44.734Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beyond a ‘Two-Level’ Game: Local Livelihood Issues and International Development Institutions in the Mekong River Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2014

Tun Myint
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article investigates whether and how local livelihood issues are linked to international development policy and practices in the Mekong River Basin under a two-level game approach. Based on field research and interviews with villagers, and national and international policy makers associated with two hydroelectric dam projects, four key livelihood issues that are central to local communities, but are not currently considered important in international development policy and practices, are described. Fundamental to these issues is the problem that existing frameworks of international institutions do not consider local communities and citizens as legitimate participants at the international level. It is argued that the linkages between local- and international-layer institutions are not established by considering only policy issues and interests of nation-states; the focus of existing frameworks of international institutions. A major challenge for international development planning in the Mekong River Basin is establishing direct linkages between local livelihood issues and international development institutions.

Keywords

Mekong River CommissionThailandLao PDRdevelopmentlocal livelihoodlocal-international linkage
Type
Articles
Information
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia , Volume 2 , Special Issue 2: Asia(ns) on the Move , July 2014 , pp. 223 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © Institute of East Asian Studies, Sogang University 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Auer, Matthew R. 2000. Who participates in global environmental governance? Partial answers from international relations theory. Policy Sciences 33(2), 155–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Chris. 2000. Thailand's assembly of the poor: background, drama, reaction. South East Asia Research 8(1), 5–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browder, Greg. 1998. Negotiating an International Regime for Water Allocation in the Mekong River Basin. Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Browder, Greg, and Ortolano, Leonard. 2000. The evolution of an international water resources management regime in the Mekong river basin. Natural Resources Journal 40(3), 499–531.Google Scholar
CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), 14 March 1965. Taming the Mekong. Episode of radio series, The Twentieth Century.Google Scholar
ECAFE (The UN Economic Commission for Asia and Far East). 1957. Development of Water Resources in the Lower Mekong Basin. Flood Control Studies No. 12, United Nations Publications, E/CN.11/457 ST/ECAFE/SER.F/12, Bangkok, Thailand: ECAFE.Google Scholar
Fonseca, Gelson. 1999. Can academic study and research contribute to the conduct of international relations? UN Chronicle 36(4), 71–75.Google Scholar
Gaitskell, Sir Arthur. 1973. Alternative choices in development strategy and tactics: the Mekong River Project as a case study. World Development Journal 1(10), 15–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, Wilfred. 1968. The Mekong Project: Part II: The Evolution of Design, American Universities Field Staff Report, Southeast Asia Series, vol. XVI, no. 11. Hanover, NH: American Universities Field Service.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Philip. 1999. Beyond the nation state: natural resource conflict and ‘national interest’ in Mekong hydropower development. Golden Gate University Law Review 29(3), 399–414.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Philip, and Cheong, Gerard. 1996. Natural Resource Management in the Mekong River Basin: Perspectives for Australian Development Cooperation: Final Report to AusAID. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney. Available at: http://sydney.edu.au/mekong/documents/report_mekongbasin1996.pdf.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Jeffrey W. 2002. The Mekong River Commission: trans-boundary water resources planning and regional security. Geographical Journal 168(4), 354–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lebel, Louis, Garden, Po and Imamura, Masao. 2005. The politics of scale, position, and place in the governance of water resources in the Mekong region. Ecology and Society 10(2). 18. [online]. Available at: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss2/art18/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menon, Perumpidy Kesavaneutty. 1970. The Lower Mekong River Basin: An Enquiry into International Legal Problems of the Development Programme of the Lower Mekong Countries. SJD (Doctoral of Juridical Science) Thesis: New York University School of Law, New York.Google Scholar
Missingham, Bruce D. 2003. The Assembly of the Poor: From Local Struggle to National Protest Movement. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Molle, François. 2005. Irrigation and Water Policies in the Mekong Region: Current Discourses and Practices, Sri Lanka: Integrated Water Management Institute.Google Scholar
MRC (Mekong River Commission). 1999. Annual Report. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Mekong River Commission.Google Scholar
MRC (Mekong River Commission). 2003. State of the Basin Report 2003. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Mekong River Commission.Google Scholar
MRC (Mekong River Commission) Secretariat.Google Scholar
Osborne, Milton. 2000. The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 2010. A multi-scale approach to coping with climate change and other collective action problems. Solutions 1(2), 27–36.Google Scholar
Princen, Thomas and Finger, Matthias. 1994. Environmental NGOs in World Politics: Linking the Local and the Global. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1988. Diplomacy and domestic politics: the logic of two-level games. International Organization 42, 427–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaaf, C. Hart and Fifield, Russell. 1963. The Lower Mekong: Challenge to Cooperation in Southeast Asia. Princeton: Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Sewell, Derrick and White, Gilbert. 1966. The Lower Mekong: An Experiment to International River Development. New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2004. Article 17.Google Scholar
Torell, Magnus, Salamanca, Albert M. and Ahmed, Mahfuzuddin. 2001. Management of wetland resources in the lower Mekong basin: issues and future directions. Naga 24(3–4), 4–10.Google Scholar
UNDP (United National Development Programme). 2013. The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. Human Development Report 2013. New York: UNDP.Google Scholar
UNTAA (United Nations Technical Assistance Administration). 1958. Program of Studies and Investigations for Comprehensive Development: Lower Mekong River Basin. Bangkok, Thailand: United Nations Survey Mission.Google Scholar
Wapner, Paul. 1996. Environmental Activism in World Politics. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar