Mekong Water Politics Role Play, HNC, 2021

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Mekong Water Politics Role Play, HNC, 2021

Online courses
English

On Dec 21st and 23st, 2021, the students from the class International Water Politics of Hopkins-Nanjing Center conducted a simulation of “Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Working Group Meeting”. The negotiation is designed to discuss the principles of the Declaration of Water Use under Lancang-Mekong Cooperation.

Considering the coordination and environmental-related work UNEP has been doing in recent years, as well as China as an initiator of LMC, the representative from UNEP (JIA Jiameizi, Ph.D. student of UCASS, Chinese nationality) and the representative of China (Han Xiaotian, Chinese nationality) drafted 8 principles of the declaration based on the principles of international law. All the representatives of downstream Mekong Countries, as well as FOM (Students of HNC, all American Nationality), are requested to state their positions and the opinions regarding the drafted principles, particularly on a list of specific consensuses the nations reached, such as how the principles should be modified, what states must do, what states may or may not do, and what states may do only when certain conditions apply. The simulation was designed to have 2 rounds of discussions to encourage all the representatives to address their positions based on their roles. This report contains the analysis and the negotiation strategies from all the representatives to present their ideas.