UPCOMING EVENT: Towards a Green and Just Recovery in Southeast Asia [28 November 2022]

Towards a green and just recovery in Southeast Asia: Climate futures, sustainable transformations, and the role of China

28 November 2022, (broadcast on CSDS Facebook page; participate via Zoom with registration) and in-person at Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Chulalongkorn University; Chulalongkorn University UNESCO Chair in Resource Governance and Futures Literacy; and China Dialogue Trust.

Please download the final agenda with speakers here.

Please register to join the event here.

In-person event: Alumni meeting room, 12th Floor, Faculty of Political Science Building 1 (Kasem Utthayanin Building), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Mainland southeast Asia faces a ‘polycrisis’, as climate change, conflict and Covid intersect with rising economic and geopolitical headwinds. Meanwhile, an environmentally unsustainable model of development has degraded ecosystems and biodiversity. The unequal social consequences of these crisis mirror broader socio-economic and political inequalities in the region.

In response, calls for a ‘green and just recovery’ policy agenda have grown, although its formulation is not clear or agreed upon. For example, how does it intersect with agendas at UN-led processes such as the COP27 climate talks, or the ‘UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’? Or with China’s vision for a ‘green Belt and Road’? How does it reflect civil society-led agendas, such ‘the commons’ and ‘Rights of Nature’? These questions are important as competing calls for a ‘sustainable transformation’ also imply future visions of society, international relations, and nature-society relations.

In this public seminar, we bring together journalists, scholars and civil society to ask what a ‘green and just recovery could look like in the region and how it can be achieved. As COP27 closes in Sharm el-Sheikh, we take climate change, rivers, and energy as entry points to explore the wider socio-political opportunities and challenges towards achieving ‘sustainable transformations’.

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Carl Middleton.

UPCOMING EVENT: Towards a green and just recovery in Southeast Asia [28 November 2022]

Towards a green and just recovery in Southeast Asia: Climate futures, sustainable transformations, and the role of China

28 November 2022, Online and in-person at Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 

Co-organized by China Dialogue Trust and Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

[SAVE THE DATE]: Please join us and China Dialogue to discuss on climate futures, sustainable transformations, and the role of China in Southeast Asia.

The seminar will address the following themes:

• After #COP27, what next for Southeast Asia?

• What might a green and just recovery look like, & who gets to define that vision?

• What do sustainable transformations mean for water, energy, & climate?

• What role has China played to date? What might come next?

Further details will be announced shortly.

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Carl Middleton.

UPCOMING EVENT: Mekong undercurrents amidst the US- China geostrategic rivalry: post- pandemic trends and prospects [Online, 14 December 2021]

9:00- 11:00 Thailand time (ICT), Tuesday 14 December 2021 via online.

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be one of the speakers.

The Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS) Thailand will organize an online/ virtual public forum on the Mekong Mekong Region and mainland Southeast Asia in view of the intensifying United States-China geostrategic rivalry in pandemic times.

Speakers;

Mr. Yang Yi, Secretary General, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) Amb. Pou Southirak, Executive Director, Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) Dr. Jittipat Poonkham, Associate Professor in International Affairs, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University Dr. Daved Capie, Director, Center for Strategic Studies (CSS), Professor, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, Newzealand Dr. Liu Chang, Assistant Research Fellow, Dept. of American Studies, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) Amd. Nguyen Duy Hung, Former Ambassador of Vietnam to Cambodia and Thailand, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) Dr. Carl Middleton, Director, Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University Mr. Simon Draper, Executive Director, Asia Newzealand Foundation (ANZF), Newzealand

Please click here to join this online forum and for more information about the organizer’s Facebook page.

IN THE NEWS: Book review of Knowing the Salween River

A book review has been written by Stew Motta in Water Alternatives journal on “Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River” edited by Carl Middleton and Vanessa Lamb. The book was the result of a research project co-organized by CSDS and the York Center for Asian Research (see here). The book is published as open access and is available for download here.

The review identifies the book as “the first book of its type on the Salween River and represents a landmark contribution in understanding the diverse knowledge types and complex governance issues at play in that region.”

Read the full review in Water Alternatives here.

IN THE NEWS: Mekong's falling water level riles China's downstream neighbors

China's water relations with Southeast Asian neighbors are under strain after Beijing held up the Mekong River's flow at one of its large dams upstream, precipitating a sudden drop in volume for downstream countries that share the region's longest body of water.

——

"There is still a need to deepen cooperation on transboundary water governance," said Carl Middleton, director of the Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "The appropriate goal is [for the] accountable operation of hydropower projects that avoid social and environmental impacts to the extent possible, while acknowledging and compensating for harms created."

China, which refers to the Mekong as the Lancang River, has been in the crosshairs of local and international environmentalists for the power it wields to reduce the water flow. Critics say Beijing uses the river as a tap to be turned on or off to meet domestic water requirements.

For the full article, please click the link here.

IN THE NEWS: Book Review 'Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River' from Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

By Coleen Fox [Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography]

In the last chapter of Knowing the Salween River, Nang Shining, a Shan woman living and working near the site of a proposed dam in Myanmar, writes of the frustration that communities feel when they are not consulted about projects affecting their lives and livelihoods. She discusses her efforts to create networks of young people across borders and basins, which is part of an effort to bring more voices to the decision-making process in the pursuit of social justice and sustainable development. Nang Shining’s story captures well the tensions that characterize resource politics in the Salween—while powerful national and regional actors push development and exclude local communities from meaningful participation, those same communities, supported by academics and civil society, work tirelessly to have their concerns acknowledged.

Knowing the Salween River sheds light on exactly these sorts of dynamics, revealing the multiple ways that institutions, academics, communities, and civil society organizations research and understand the river basin.

***

Read the full review here.

Carl Middleton of CSDS is co-editor and co-author of this book (see here)

Get the book: Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River (Springer Open, 2019)

NEWS: Submission of the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement to the UN High Level Panel on Internal Displacement

In 2017, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law initiated a regional thematic study on internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change across Asia and the Pacific as part of its wider programme on human rights and environment. Focusing on law, policy and practice in ten countries, and collaborating with academic partners from China, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, the study adopted an expressly human rightsbased approach grounded in the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Academics involved in the regional thematic study have formed the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement, in whose name this submission is made. The following submission is based on insights gained from the study, including through consultations with international, regional and national actors. Some of the insights highlighted in this submission were also presented in various regional and national fora to validate them and gather feedback.

Center for Social Development Studies is part of the "Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement" and is a co-signatory of this submission. To read the Academic Submission, please visit the link here.

You can also visit the research project related to this submission, “Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response in Hat Yai”.

UPCOMING EVENT: "Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River"

Saturday, 7 September 2019, Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Utthayanin Building (อาคารเกษม อุทยานิน), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (guide to the venue here)

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) and Salween Studies Network

The Salween River, shared by China, Myanmar, and Thailand, is increasingly at the heart of pressing regional development debates. The basin supports the livelihoods of over 10 million people, and within it there is great socioeconomic, cultural and political diversity. The basin is witnessing intensifying dynamics of resource extraction, alongside large dam construction, conservation and development intervention, that is unfolding within a complex terrain of local, national and transnational governance. With a focus on the contested politics of water and associated resources in the Salween basin, in this seminar we will explore the possible futures of the Salween basin through the lens of: resource politics; politics of knowledge making; and reconciling knowledge across divides. The seminar will also launch the new book: “Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River”.

For more information about this seminar, please contact communications.csds@gmail.com.

For the most updated information, you can also visit the event’s landing page here.

UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: "Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Transformation in Asia" [Bangkok, 24 January 2019]

19.00 - 21.00, Thursday, 24th January at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V., Chatham House, and Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Scientific warnings on climate change are more urgent than ever, but global talks lack ambition. Meanwhile, renewable energy industries are booming, and China claims it is building a green "Belt and Road". Is it enough? Can Asia power up a sustainable transition?

Panel Discussion

• “Geopolitics of energy in Europe and Asia” by Dr. Peter Hefele, Director, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung RECAP, Hongkong/PR China

• “Global climate politics and China” by Dr. Sam Geall, Chatham House and chinadialogue, London/UK

• “China’s renewable energy transformation and its global effects” by Dr. Wei Shen, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton/UK

• “Thailand’s electricity future: Prospects, Opportunities and Challenges” by Suphakit Nunavorakarn, Healthy Public Policy Foundation, Thailand

Chair: Dr. Champa Patel, Head of the Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House, London, United Kingdom

For inquiries about this event, please contact us at communications.csds@gmail.com

UPCOMING PUBLIC SEMINAR: "Understanding the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Framework and China’s role in the Mekong Region" [Bangkok, 3 September 2018]

09.00 - 17.00, Monday, 3rd September at Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Utthayanin Building (อาคารเกษม อุทยานิน), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by chinadialogue, The Third Pole, Earth Journalism Network, and the Centre for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok

The Mekong region is facing a period of rapid change shaped by a significant shift over the past decade in its relationship with China. New pathways of regional integration and intergovernmental cooperation have emerged, including through the Belt and Road Initiative and the Lancang Mekong Cooperation Framework. Associated with these shifts have been deepening trade between China and the Mekong Region, and growing flows of investment from China into a range of projects including large dams, railways, and industrial projects. Whilst these trends reflect a geo-economic shift, longstanding challenges on environmental sustainability, social equity, government-investor accountability to the public and public participation remain. Inevitably it seems, China, as a powerful country, will play a key role in shaping the future path of the Mekong Region.

This public forum will bring together experts and journalists from China and lower Mekong countries to discuss the geopolitical implications of Chinese investment and regional initiatives in the Mekong Region. It will address the Belt and Road Initiative; the challenges and opportunities in transboundary water governance under the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Framework, together with other emerging cooperation issues; and debate by regional journalists about the trends, challenges and successes for Southeast Asia’s media on reporting on China’s role in the Mekong Region.

Program and List of Panelists:

08.15 - 09.00  Registration

09.00 - 09.15  Welcome remarks by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ake Tangsupvattana, Dean of Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

09.15 - 10.45  Session 1: The Belt and Road Initiative:  Geopolitical implications for Asia

Moderator: Asst. Prof. Dr. Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• 'Geopolitics and Geoeconomics of the Belt and Road Initiative' by Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS), Chulalongkorn University

• 'The Belt and Road Initiative: A Perspective from China' by Mr. Li Hong,Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP)

• 'What does the Belt and Road Initiative mean for US-Thailand relations?' by Benjamin Zawacki, Independent Analyst

• 'Debt Diplomacy?: The experience of Sri Lanka' by Amantha Perera, Journalist

10.45 - 11.15  Coffee break

11.15 - 12.45  Session 2: Transboundary Water Cooperation – Progress and Challenges

Moderator: Dr. Ukrist Pathmanand, Mekong Research Center, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University  

• 'Positioning the MRC in the context of the Mekong Lancang Cooperation Framework' by Dr. Anoulak Kittikhoun, Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat

• 'From GMS to Belt and Road Initiative: Continuities and discontinuities in transboundary water governance in the Lancang-Mekong basin' by Dr. John Dore, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

• 'The implications of the Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noi  disaster for transboundary water governance' by Supalak Ganjanakhundee, The Nation (Thailand)

12.45 - 13.30  Lunch

13.30 - 14.45  Session 3: Rise of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Framework: Emerging cooperation issues

Moderator: Kamol Sukin, China Dialogue

• 'Regional energy cooperation: Institutions, infrastructure and investment' by Courtney Weatherby, Stimson Centre

• 'Opportunities for sustainable Lancang-Mekong scientific cooperation' by Chayanis Krittasudthacheewa, Stockholm Environment Institute

• 'The Lancang Mekong Cooperation Framework: Implications for Thailand and ASEAN' by Apichai Sunchindah, Independent analyst

14.45 - 15.15  Coffee Break

15.15 - 16.45  Session 4: Reporting on the Mekong and China’s role: Trends, challenges and successes for Southeast Asia’s media

Moderator: Sim Kok Eng Amy, Earth Journalism Network

• 'Challenges and opportunities reporting on the Mekong from China' by Wang Yan, News China

• 'Chinese power investment and natural resource governance in Myanmar' by Zayar Hlaing, Mawkun magazine

• 'Obstacles in covering China-investment-related stories in Vietnam' by Bui Tien Dung, Tuoi Tre (Youth) Newspaper

16.45 - 17.00  Closing Reflections

• Dr. Sam Geall, China Dialogue

• Professor Surichai Wun’gaeo, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University

*This event will be broadcasted on Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/CSDSChula/

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to  Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at communications.csds@gmail.com. The seat is limited and registration will be accepted on first come first served basis.

IN THE NEWS: "Flashing cash, China spearheads Mekong economic integration"

By Marwaan Macan-Markar [Nikkei Asian Review, 12 January 2018]

Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang used a visit to Cambodia this week to strengthen China-led economic integration across mainland Southeast Asia. Li celebrated his embrace of multilateralism with an op-ed penned specially for a Cambodian newspaper, and basked in China's triumph with its five southerly neighbors, all of whom share the Mekong, Southeast Asia's longest river. 

"Being located downstream, the lower Mekong countries have long struggled to negotiate with China on its dam construction upstream," said Carl Middleton, director of the Center for Social Development Studies, at Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok. "A weakness of the current Lancang Mekong Cooperation Framework's approach is that there appears to be little interest by China to develop specific written rules for trans-boundary water sharing."

Jinghong Hydropower Station in Yunnan province  (Source: AP)

China's determined push into mainland Southeast Asia lays bare the limits of existing Mekong initiatives supported by Japan, the U.S. and other Western nations, all of which focused on the five basin countries but shut out China. They pose little challenge to China, and are short on the verbal fireworks over another body of water in Southeast Asia -- the disputed South China Sea.

Read full article at: https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Flashing-cash-China-spearheads-Mekong-economic-integration?page=1