BLOG
The Vietnamese Climate Trap
April 23rd, 2023
Via The Globe & Mail, a report on how – as rising seas ruin crops – Mekong Delta farmers are moving to big cities, straining their finances and families – but for most, migration is not an option. Their stories challenge conventional wisdom on what ‘climate refugees’ look like and where they go: 1. Farmer […]
Read more »No Mainstream: The Mekong’s Competing Definitions
April 15th, 2023
Courtesy of The Diplomat, an article on how – both within and between nations – Southeast Asia’s largest river gives rise to competing, and in some cases conflicting, notions: Last September, during a Thailand-Australia Policy Dialogue organized by the Asia Foundation and the Australian National University in Canberra, I was reminded of the ice-breaking exercise […]
Read more »Laos Takes Another Step Forward on Controversial Mekong Dam
April 7th, 2023
Courtesy of The Diplomat, an article on continued progress towards the new China-backed Pak Lay hydropower project, one of nine dams that the Lao government has planned for the Mekong River: Yesterday, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that Thai and Chinese investors have signed a power purchase agreement that opens the way to the construction of a […]
Read more »Time To Change Myopic View Of The Mekong
April 7th, 2023
Via The Asia Times, commentary on saving the Mekong, which may require looking below the surface of the river: All eyes this week are on the Mekong, the mighty river that is the lifeblood of Southeast Asia. As prime ministers, diplomats, and business and finance leaders gather in Vientiane for the fourth Mekong River Commission […]
Read more »Will the Mekong River Really Become the Next South China Sea?
October 5th, 2022
Via The Diplomat, a look – amid competition between China and the U.S. – at how the question of the river’s fate has been imbued with a strategic undercurrent: In recent years, the fate of Southeast Asia’s great river – the Mekong – has attracted growing international scrutiny. The Mekong faces many challenges, from the […]
Read more »Saving The Mekong Delta From Drowning
May 12th, 2022
Via Terra Daily, a report on the Mekong Delta: Southeast Asia’s most productive agricultural region and home to 17 million people could be mostly underwater within a lifetime. Saving the Mekong River Delta requires urgent, concerted action among countries in the region to lessen the impact of upstream dams and better manage water and sediments […]
Read more »