Using transboundary environmental security to manage the Mekong River: China and South-East Asian Countries

Abstract

Environmental security, broadly defined as integrated analysis of the social and ecological aspects of environmental problems, is gaining influence as nations begin to expand beyond traditional conceptions of national security. The Mekong River basin provides an instructive example of challenges to the evolution of environmental security in Asia. An overview of six main security stressors – ecosystem degradation, food, energy, water, development, and climate change – reveals the need for transboundary governance reform. China may be in a position to undertake new leadership in the Mekong, which could result in more cooperation, but only if that leadership embraces more deliberative and inclusive behaviour.

Keywords:

• Mekong River
• environmental security
• adaptive governance
• China
• South-East Asia

Acknowledgments

Part of this research was supported by the Canadian International Development Research Centre project ‘Building Effective Water Governance in the Asian Highlands’ and Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant 2010T1S2) during my 2010–2014 Visiting Professorship for senior international scientists.