大湄公河流域爭霸戰：大湄公河經濟合作的推展及其戰略意涵

Mapping Power Struggles in Mekong River Basin: The Expansion and Strategic Meanings Inside the Development Cooperation for Mekong River Basin

冷戰時代，大湄公河流域因位處東南亞地緣政治衝突的核心，導致沿岸各國的經濟發展因連年戰亂而極度落後，多數地區幾乎仍未被開發，可說是世界最貧窮的地區之一。1990年代後，隨著沿岸各國的政局趨於穩定及採對外開放政策，國富民強也隨之成為各國追求的目標，各種經濟合作計畫亦屢被提出。然而，經濟合作計畫是一龐大的系統性工程，湄公河流域諸國不僅缺乏對應的基礎設施，更缺乏所需資金、技術及人力，故只能仰賴國際金融機構與組織提供援助；此時，外來勢力即趁機大舉介入湄公河流域的開發。日本、中國及東協諸國為爭奪區域經濟發展的主導權，紛藉聯合國、亞洲開發銀行及世界銀行等機構介入印支半島的開發，並提供開發計畫所需的資金及技術。面對強權在湄公河流域的爭霸，沿岸各國如何妥善協調日益複雜的區域關係，也成為其推動經濟發展時另一重大的難題。本文的目的即從湄公河流域的主要經濟合作計畫切入，希望透過相關合作方案的探討，廓清各方勢力逐霸印支半島的策略部署，以及掌握沿岸各國如何在強權爭霸中謀求生存與發展。

During the Cold War, countries alongside the core position of Southeast Asia, the Mekong River basin, were engaged in wars for a series of years. The long-term under-development made these countries nearly the poorest in the world. After 1990s, these countries recovered political stab1ity from the end of warfare and opened their doors to develop economy as nations' primary goal. Several international cooperation programs for developing Mekong River Basin were proposed here after. Nevertheless, these countries desperately need the infrastructures, capital, technologies, and labor to fulfill these programs. The development cooperation hence gives the room for the outside powers such as Japan, China and richer ASEAN countries to compete for the leadership from resources supply by the channels of United Nations, Asian Development Bank, and World Bank. To ease struggles among the outside powers, this kind of coordination of development programs became more and more difficult for countries alongside Mekong River. This paper wants to explore the strategic interests of different Mekong River development programs from analyzing the outside powers' struggles for leadership in Mekong River Basin. This paper also clarifies how the countries alongside Mekong River extracted their interests within the struggles of outside powers.