Research On The Development,Motivation And Impacts Of The Relation Between U.S. And The Mekong Region

The United States has been adjusting its global strategy constantly since the Cold War. Its focus on the Asia-Pacific region experienced strategic concentration to strategic expansion from George Herbert Walker Bush administration to Barack Obama administration. In2009, the Obama administration put forward such strategies as "Return to Asia-Pacific","Strategic Shift" and "Asia-Pacific Rebalancing" successively. The "Asia-Pacific Rebalancing" strategy eventually formed during Obama’s first and second tenures. The Lower Mekong region undervalued previously in American national strategy now plays an important role in the "Asia-Pacific Rebalancing" strategy of the Obama administration. The sustainable cooperation between U.S. and the Mekong region during the first and the second tenures of the Obama administration helps to develop bilateral and multilateral parallel pattern, ranging from political, economic, military, cultural, health to environmental fields and others. The Lower Mekong region is the overlapping part of U.S."Asia-Pacific Rebalancing" strategy and peripheral diplomacy strategy to China. Therefore the cooperation between U.S. and the Mekong region will bring inevitable and significant impacts on China’s national strategy.The dissertation expounds and analyzes the development and evolution, motivation and impact of the U. S.-Mekong relation after the Cold War from the theoretical perspectives of state interest and security threat identification.This research illuminates that the U. S.-Mekong relation changes with Asia-Pacific strategy of the United States after the Cold War, going through a process from long-term coldness to abrupt warmness. The bilateral relation is significant to the U. S.-Mekong relation, and the multilateral relation is growing up gradually. The U. S.-Mekong relation changes from bilateral to multilateral, with military cooperation as the primary goal and economic cooperation as the key during the Obama administration. The U. S.-Mekong relation promotes the regional cooperation, but it also causes negative impacts on regional security and stability. Meanwhile, it also brings negative but limited impacts on China’s peripheral diplomatic strategy and "Area Strategy".