Power Relations in the Mekong River Basin - A look into the discourse of the Mekong River Commission

Abstract: This study concerns itself with power assymetries between states as well as cooperative arrangements within the Mekong River Basin. Transboundary frameworks for cooperation are often faced with challenges in harmonizing policy in the face of competing interests and unequal power relations between states and stakeholders. These challenges are especially evident in the context of the Mekong River Basin, where the river flows through the territories of six riparian nations with China holding the most power. The largest of these transboundary frameworks tasked with the role of a water diplomat in the region is a river basin organization known as the Mekong River Commission (MRC). Using the theories of critical geopolitics and hydro-hegemony, this paper employs a critical discourse analysis of MRC strategy documents to investigate the role of power assymetries and relations in affecting the commission’s strategy and role in the basin. The findings show that the MRC’s strategy to strengthen itself as an international river basin organization is a geopolitical act to position itself to attain more influence as a counter-hegemonic actor to China in the basin, in order to reverse the power assymetries towards its non-hegemonic member states. The strategy documents themselves are also interpreted to be a powerful discursive tool to boost donor confidence and secure itself as a leading river basin organization in the region. Finally, the analysis of MRC discourse in relation to China shows the limit in the MRC’s ability to upend existing unequal power relations towards more non hydro-hegemonic influence due to its failure to harmonize policy among its member states, China’s upstream geographic power as well as the addition of a new institutional arrangement known as the Lancang-Mekong cooperation, which is interpreted to be a challenge to MRC’s claim to be a leading international river basin organization in the region.