ABSTRACT
The Mekong River Basin, one of the world’s great rivers and a geostrategic hotspot, is undergoing rapid development. The construction of water and related infrastructures, especially the first two mainstream hydropower dams in the Lower Mekong Basin, following previous earlier developments that yielded costs and benefits, has ignited fierce debates, public contestations, and alarming talks about water tensions and possible conflicts in a historically warring region. This chapter argues that the Mekong River Commission (MRC), as the only treaty-based organization in the basin, has played an increasing role in water conflict management in the last two decades by facilitating and supporting water-related negotiations for the sustainable management of the basin. While the MRC has faced challenges in bringing the countries together, it has managed to establish itself as a knowledge hub and water diplomacy platform. The three examples of how the MRC handles the consultations over the lower Mekong mainstream dams of serve as cases to illustrate the organization’s water diplomacy framework in action.
