[enviro-vlc] The Mekong, China and the USA

[vern weitzel]

From: david <dfullbrook8 at gmail.com>
Date: 31 August 2010 12:12:36 PM PDT
To: LaoFAB <laofab at googlegroups.com>
Subject: [LaoFAB] Re: The Mekong, China and the USA
Reply-To: laofab at googlegroups.com

As is often the case all the troubles of the Mekong are being blamed
on China. It is a simple story that suits Cold War mindsets. Less than
a fifth of the Mekong's water comes from China. Many of the problems
downstream are due as much, if not more so, to the dams and intensive
industrial agricultural practices being applied in Laos, Thailand and
to a lesser extent Cambodia. It is they that decide on their
development policies, they that decide to license investments, they
that permit domestic and foreign companies to go about their business,
they that choose to enforce or not enforce their laws, they that
choose whether to provide space or not for meaningful participation by
well-informed citizens.

China certainly bears some responsibility not only for the effects of
its dams but also as the rising regional power. However as I've
pointed out in previous posts it is difficult for China to provide a
lead and perhaps engage confidently with other Mekong states when they
have yet to demonstrate any serious commitment to cooperation have
joint planning and sharing of resources either within their borders or
collectively, which would necessarily require some pooling of
sovereignty in order to create a common authority to manage a common
resource. This being the case it is only natural, no matter how
distasteful that may be to some, for China to engage in policies and
actions to secure its borders and interests by indulging the elites of
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and even Thailand to cement access to energy,
minerals and trade routes and prevent substantial intrusion by other
great power, primarily America but also India and Japan. Of course
China has to tread delicately yet it also has to maintain a degree of
leverage therefore it will not kowtow to the states of the Mekong, yet
it is also unlikely to go so far as to push them firmly into the hug
of America and other powers. Equally the states of the Mekong will
realize they can milk all the powers by being open to their advances.
Question perhaps is how far will America go in the name of realpolitik
in its engagement with authoritarian regimes in order to blunt the
influence of China?

It is also assumed by articles like this that America's interest is
primarily to counter China. That may be so, then again it may not. Is
USAID just a civil tool for American geopolitics? Some will say yes
others may not be so sure. USAID, I think, would insist it is acting
in the interests of humanity. There is a more holistic perspective on
security and global challenges developing within the American
political-military policy community. Consider for the example the
recent Joint Operating Environment published by the Pentagon. Or some
of the discourse out of military academic communities in America.
Problems of failed states, civil unrest and so on are increasingly
seen not as causes of other problems but as symptoms of climate change
or environmental mismanagement. Given the problems emerging from
current management practices in the Mekong and in particular the
threats to agricultural production in Cambodia and the Mekong Delta it
may be that USAID and its policy directors believe they have an
opportunity to help communities and states mitigate and adapt to the
environmental and climatic change which otherwise threatens
dislocation to livelihoods, food security and community cohesion
perhaps setting the stage for conflict.

In any case until there is a frank and mature debate about the
distribution of causes and responsibilities for the Mekong it will not
be possible arrest the current trend towards ever more enclosure of
land and water and reconstruction of the environment and its flows in
favour of a limited interests able to socialise the costs on to
everybody else no matter what is done by America or China.

-- 
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