The Journal of GMS Development Studies is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed publication that seeks to promote a better understanding of a broad range of development issues of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). This journal is published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the framework of the Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management (PPP), a region-wide capacity building program that supports knowledge products and services. It is directed at GMS planners, policy makers, academics, and researchers who, in their unique capacities, continue to search for solutions to the many complex challenges of the subregion. By disseminating knowledge about the GMS, the Journal hopes to stimulate further thinking and debate on GMS issues, thus contributing to informed policy choices, responsive advocacy, and meticulous scholarship.

The Mekong Basin is home to some 70 million people, for whom this great river is a source of livelihoods, the basis for their ecosystems and a foundation of their economies. But the Mekong is also currently undergoing enormous social, economic, and ecological change of which hydropower development is a significant driver. This book provides a basin-wide analysis of political, socio-economic and environmental perspectives of hydropower development in the Mekong Basin. It includes chapters from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Written by regional experts from some of the region's leading research institutions, the book provides an holistic analysis of the shifting socio-political contexts within which hydropower is framed, legitimised and executed. Drawing heavily on political ecologies and political economics to examine the economic, social, political and ecological drivers of hydropower, the book's basin wide approach illuminates how hydropower development, and its benefits and impacts, are linked multilaterally across the basin. The research in the book is derived from empirical research conducted from 2012-2013 as part of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food's Mekong programme.

The Mekong River is a vital and valuable resource, with huge development potential for the six states through which it flows. Given the significant asymmetry of power between those states, however, there is a real risk that some might utilise it to the detriment of others. Without a sense of regional belonging, it is difficult to imagine that these states and their constituent communities will take regional imperatives to heart, participate in joint regulatory frameworks, or adopt behaviours for upstream-downstream and lateral cooperation over the appropriation and use of their shared resources. How effectively has closer interdependence of the Mekong countries accommodated the development of a political-social-cultural space conducive to the growth of a regional "we-ness" among not only political elites, but also the general public? The contributors to this volume approach this question from a range of directions, including the impacts of tourism, regional development programmes, the Mekong Power Grid, and Sino-US rivalry. This edited volume presents valuable insights for scholars of international relations, Asian studies, development studies, environment studies, policy studies, and human geography.

This book contributes to a better understanding about the dynamics of transnational migration and diaspora in Northern Thailand border areas with Myanmar and Laos. Border cities in Southeast Asia are places that have unique characteristics because of rapid development which includes the process of transnational migration and diaspora communities from neighboring countries. Historically, different ethnic groups had migrated in the border areas of mainland Southeast Asian countries and China. Border cities, such as Mae Sai and Chiang Khong, are strategic places for refugees, minority groups, and others from neighboring countries to reside either temporary or permanently. The infrastructure and economic developments of those two cities in the border areas have not only influenced the formation of those two cities into multicultural societies, but also become more modern cities with various economic activities. Both Mae Sai and Chiang Khong gradually became more densely populated and have transformed into economic and tourist destinations because they have low-price goods, duty free markets, and even casinos. The arrivals of various ethnic groups in different times have formed a multicultural community, which plays a very important role in the development of border cities and surrounding areas. On top of these, the policies on border areas have been more complex considering the transnational movements of people, goods and ideas.

The SAGE Handbook of the 21st Century City focuses on the dynamics and disruptions of the contemporary city in relation to capricious processes of global urbanisation, mutation and resistance. An international range of scholars engage with emerging urban conditions and inequalities in experimental ways, speaking to new ideas of what constitutes the urban, highlighting empirical explorations and expanding on contributions to policy and design. The handbook is organised around nine key themes, through which familiar analytic categories of race, gender and class, as well as binaries such as the urban/rural, are readdressed. These thematic sections together capture the volatile processes and intricacies of urbanisation that reveal the turbulent nature of our early twenty-first century: Hierarchy: Elites and Evictions Productivity: Over-investment and Abandonment Authority: Governance and Mobilisations Volatility: Disruption and Adaptation Conflict: Vulnerability and Insurgency Provisionality: Infrastructure and Incrementalism Mobility: Re-bordering and De-bordering Civility: Contestation and Encounter Design: Speculation and Imagination This is a provocative, inter-disciplinary handbook for all academics and researchers interested in contemporary urban studies.

This book evaluates China’s relations with sub-regional Southeast Asia through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework. The book looks at domestic drivers and regional receptivity of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and also delves into the challenges of China’s engagement in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. The book examines how China’s BRI will contribute to the development of these countries, to regional economic integration and cooperation processes within a political-economic context. It addresses the BRI process within the GMS on three levels: regional, individual recipient countries and the Chinese perspective. The case studies in the book will help to provide insights on China’s growing economic influence in sub-regional Southeast Asia and its Belt and Road Initiative. This book will appeal to researchers interested in the BRI, China's relations with Southeast Asia and China’s neighbourhood policy and how domestic considerations are influencing China’s policy making.

Special economic zones (SEZs) are important doorways for countries to attract foreign investment and promote trade. A strong correlation between the creation of SEZs and economic development indicators has also been identified in previous studies, at the municipal level, in China. Thus, the fundamental question that needs to be explored is to what extent SEZs can play the role of development enablers in different regions, development states, and institutional settings. The Handbook of Research on Special Economic Zones as Regional Development Enablers discusses the diverse and international track records in the implementation of SEZs, the interplay of SEZ models and local institutional infrastructure and stakeholders, and the SEZ models that can best fit certain development states and/or settings. Covering topics such as the Belt and Road Initiative, local and national economies, and regional integration, this book is essential for government officials, development officers, scholars, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, public decision makers, aid agencies, company executives, investors, and academicians.

This volume examines the ways different countries around the world have responded to rising numbers of mobile citizens. Complete with detailed case studies, it provides a groundbreaking and global analysis of emigration and diaspora policies in the 21st century. First, an introduction considers factors that determines a state’s policy choices. It draws on rich empirical material to present readers with information on the determinants of policy definition and implementation, reactions to emigration, and converging and diverging trends. Next, the volume offers detailed case studies from 15 countries around the world, including Argentia, Vietnam, Senegal, the Russian Federation, Denmark, and Turkey. Coverage for each country critically analyzes its emigration or diaspora policies as well as how these policies affect its mobile citizens. The contributors also place the policies in context and explore the consequences of pertinent rules and provisions. In addition, a conclusion presents a comparative analysis of all case studies as well as details a set of best practices.Emigration and immigration are two sides of the same coin that every country experiences and, in one way or the other, must face. This book offers readers a new look on diaspora and emigration governance across the globe and explores the future paradigm of reactions to emigration.

An international river basin is an ecological system, an economic thoroughfare, a geographical area, a font of life and livelihoods, a geopolitical network and, often, a cultural icon. It is also a socio-legal phenomenon. This book is the first detailed study of an international river basin from a socio-legal perspective. The Mekong River Basin, which sustains approximately 70 million people across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, provides a prime example of the socio-legal complexities of governing a transboundary river and its tributaries. The book applies its socio-legal analysis to bring a fresh approach to understanding conflicts surrounding water governance in the Mekong River Basin. The authors describe the wide range of uses being made of legal doctrine and legal argument in ongoing disputes surrounding hydropower development in the Basin, putting to rest lingering caricatures of a single, ‘ASEAN’ way of navigating conflict. They call into question some of the common assumptions concerning the relationship between law and development. The book also sheds light on important questions concerning the global hybridization or crossover of public and private power and its ramifications for water governance. With current debates and looming conflicts over water governance globally, and over shared rivers in particular, these issues could not be more pressing.

China and its neighbours face a series of water security issues, in which international law plays a vital role. Paramount to both policymakers and researchers in the field of water law, the current status of transboundary water cooperation schemes and how these operate in China is of global significance. Grounded in international experience, this comprehensive volume provides readers with an up-to-date overview of current international transboundary water resource sharing policies and practices, including detailed case studies at both domestic and international levels. The authors discuss existing international laws, treaties, and principles that may stimulate transboundary water cooperation and dialogue, and then analyse a number of international experiences with treaties in North America, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. They take stock of China’s water resource issues, legal practices and options, examine case studies of China’s southern shared rivers, and explore some innovative approaches to cooperative management of shared waters within China. The articles in this book were originally published in the journal Water International.