| The Mekong River has always played a central role for the riparian states in mainland. Southeast Asia. What has been changing is that the Mekong River region has one of the highest growth rates in the world; and this is causing pressure on the demand for the river resources. The economic development in the region is also changing how the riparian states cooperate over the river resources. The increased competition for benefits from the resource is increasing the stakes the riparian states have in ensuring that they receive their fair share of the river resources. Within this environment, the outcomes from intergovernmental exchanges over the resources have become more significant for the riparian states. These changes in the regional environment create a great demand for an international regime to manage the resources as a common good through which all the members act as shareholders. This gives the member states a vested interest in sustaining cooperation.;The two particular organizations that oversee the resources are: the Greater Mekong Sub-region, which facilitates economic growth; and the Mekong River Commission, which oversees water projects on the Lower Mekong Basin. The thesis examines their regime elements and how much regime formation they have. The level of regime formation is evaluated by using the following elements: the unlikely use of power politics to solve regime issues; the amount of high-level interstate negotiating experience the member states have; the geopolitical history of the region; and the level of integration between the member states.;Judging from the regime elements, the Mekong River regime has not formed into a rules-based regime. It has only formed into a policy advisor regime. This indicates that the regime has a procedure-based form. Going beyond this point, they can develop high regime formation and move beyond a procedure-based form to a rules-based form; but in doing so, they need to better cope with the changing international environment and the increase in demand for the river resources. They also have to overcome some fundamental restrictions in the region such as traditional behavior, the lack of embedded institutions, and power imbalance.;The Mekong River has had a long history which resembles an international river regime. There have been several treaties and agreements over the last sixty years relating to this important resource but they have not produced significant regime elements, as in other international rivers, (i.e., the Danube River in Europe). Interestingly, the Mekong River regime still seems conducive to international cooperation over transboundary river resources, and is even used by the United Nations as an example of joint cooperation for other international rivers. However, even with a regime background, the Mekong River has not been able to develop the fully-fledged regime beyond the procedural level of regime formation. This leads to the question: Are there certain key elements in a region that determine the form of an international regime? This thesis examines the Mekong River regime to shed light on how regional environmental conditions produce regime elements. |
