Transnational political economic structures: explaining transnational environmental movements against dams in the lower Mekong region

Abstract

Influenced by regional economic integration and politics, the transboundary common water resources in the lower Mekong River are being exploited by the riparian states for hydroelectric dam development at the expense of local livelihoods and the environment. Affected communities and non-governmental organisations – formed into ‘transnational environmental movements’ (TEMs) in the framework of transnational activism – have challenged these riparian states to abandon dam construction on the main stream of the Mekong River. This paper explores the conditions that undermine TEMs’ ability to cancel dam projects in the region. This paper argues that, among several other factors, TEMs were unable to halt construction of the dam primarily due to the transnational political economic structures (TPES) of the riparian states that possess hydroelectric dams on the Mekong mainstream. TPES shape the sovereign power of the riparian states in making decisions regarding extracting economic value from the common water resource of the Mekong at the expense of the environment rather than complying with the demands of TEMs. By factoring TPES into understanding the outcomes of TEMs, this paper contributes to the understanding of political opportunity structures and transnational networks of transboundary movements, and of the political economy of the Mekong transboundary resources.

Keywords:

• Political economic structures
• political opportunities
• transnational environmental movements
• transnational networks
• dam
• the Mekong River

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editor of the journal and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments to improve the arguments of the paper. We thank Japhet Quitzon for his superb research assistance and support in several ways.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The authors received no funding for this research.

Notes

1 Stimson (2020), Mekong Mainstream Dam, https://www.stimson.org/2020/mekong-mainstream-dams/ (last accessed 1 April 2021).

2 See the joint declaration of 40 national and international non-governmental organisations of transnational environmental movements at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/declaration_english_final.pdf (last accessed 19 June 2019).

3 The recent drought and insufficient water on the Mekong mainstream may be induced by the dams and also by climate change.

4 Mekong River Commission, https://www.mrcmekong.org (last accessed 14 April 2021).

5 http://cnmc.gov.kh/cnmc/index.php/en/2021-05-06-04-00-00 (last accessed 5 August 2021).

6 Interview with an NGO director, Laos, 20 September 2016.

7 Informal discussion with an official of Laos’s human rights commission, Viet Nam (19 November 2014).

8 A global advocacy network dealing with river-related environmental issues.

9 An environmental organisation based in Thailand.

10 Interview with an NGO worker, Cambodia, 31 May 2020.

11 Save the Mekong, https://savethemekong.net/about-us/ (last accessed 17 February 2017).

12 Names of participants are anonymised for the purpose of protecting their privacy.

13 These objectives are drawn from Save the Mekong’s website (www.savethemekong.net) and interviews with members of the network, Cambodia (1 March 2016; 8 March 2016; 27 February 2018).

14 Interview with an umbrella NGO officer, Viet Nam (7 March 2013).

15 Timeline of local and international mobilisation and tactics employed by TEMs, http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/388607/Gambling-With-The-Mekong-River-The-History-Of-The-Xayaburi-Dam (last accessed 4 November 2020).

16 Interviews with programme officer of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos (15 May 2012), and officer of an NGO, Viet Nam (6 March 2013).

17 Interview with an officer of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos (14 July 2017).

18 Interview with an NGO officer, Cambodia (13 March 2016).

19 Interview with the programme officer of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos (15 November 2015).

20 International River https://www.internationalrivers.org/news/blog-thai-court-holds-hope-for-transboundary-justice-in-the-mekong/ (last accessed 17 April 2018).

21 Interviews with an officer of an inter-governmental organisation, Laos (19 September 2016), and with an officer of an international NGO, Laos (18 July 2017).

22 Personal communication with a hydropower specialist of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos, (17 November 2015); http://www.mrcmekong.org/assets/Publications/Review-of-design-change-for-Xayaburi-hydropower-project_technical-ref-paper_2019_update-v2.pdf (last accessed 1 July 2020).

23 Interviews with the representative of a fishery NGO, Cambodia (15 March 2016), and an officer of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos (20 July 2017).

24 Interviews with an environmental activist, Thailand (19 September 2014), and with a government official, Cambodia (20 February 2016).

25 https://english.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-dams-not-cause-of-drought-pm-says-111220/ (last accessed 28 October 2020).

26 https://www.khmertimeskh.com/677525/laos-links-195mw-power-to-cambodia/ (last accessed 28 October 2020).

27 Interview with an officer of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos (17 July 2017).

28 https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/threat-of-further-big-dams-on-the (last accessed 6 August 2021).

29 Interview with the programme officer of an intergovernmental organisation, Laos (19 November 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sokphea Young

Sokphea Young is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University College London, United Kingdom. He has researched transnational activism, civil society, media and visual politics, human rights, citizenship, globalisation and development, Chinese globalism, and political regimes and development in Southeast Asia. He is the author of Strategies of Authoritarian Survival and Dissensus in Southeast Asia (Palgrave Macmillan).

Sophal Ear

Sophal Ear is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Global Development and a tenured Associate Professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. He is the author of Viral Sovereignty and the Political Economy of Pandemics: What Explains How Countries Handle Outbreaks? (Routledge, forthcoming) and Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy (Columbia University Press), and co-author of The Hungry Dragon: How China’s Resource Quest Is Reshaping the World (Routledge).