中美博弈背景下美国参与湄公河水治理的行为逻辑及可适性分析

The United States’ Involvement in the Mekong Water Governance in the Context of China-US Game: An Analysis of the Policy Logic and Its Adaptability

在中美博弈背景下,湄公河次区域战略地位上升。奥巴马以来的三届美国政府均将水作为介入湄公河次区域事务的关键切入口,且在水治理议程设置、水治理网络构建、“可持续基础设施”倡议实施和“公私合作”等方面逐步推进,显示出美国政府在湄公河水资源问题上的政策连贯性,亦使美国成为影响中国和湄公河国家水资源合作的重要因素。美国参与湄公河水治理对接了湄公河国家制衡中国和增强流域水安全风险管理能力的需求,但是美国的参与着力于“软”基础设施建设、能力建设和制度建设,对湄公河国家亟需的“硬”基础设施投入不足。美国参与湄公河水治理起源于“软制衡”理论和全球治理中的“霸权主导”思想,致使其从“美国优先”考虑出发,并在治理中嵌入美国制度和价值观,不仅没有充分考虑湄公河国家的实际国情和发展需求,也与东盟目前主导的治理范式存在不一致性,面临湄公河国家政治信任不足、私营企业参与意愿薄弱、“湄公河之友”伙伴关系难以有效协调等问题。

The Mekong sub-region’s strategic importance is growing in the context of China-US Game. From Barack Obama to Joseph Biden, the three successive U.S. administrations have been using water as a breakthrough point to interfere in the Mekong sub-region affairs and to endeavor to optimize the agenda-setting of the Mekong water governance, to establish multi-layer governance network, to implement the Initiative of Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership and to improve Public-Private Partnership. The U.S. governments showed their policy continuity in the Mekong water governance and made the U.S. an important power in affecting the Lancang-Mekong water resources cooperation. The U.S. involvement into the Mekong water governance helped the Mekong countries balance their upper-riverine neighbor China and improve their capability of managing the basin water risks. The U.S. puts its focus on soft water infrastructures, capacity building and institutional construction, however, its assistance to the hard water infrastructures in urgent need by the Mekong countries is very limited. The U.S. involvement in the Mekong water governance is guided by the theory of Soft Balancing and Hegemonism in global governance, which makes the U.S. start from the position of American First and imbed American institutions and values into the governance without enough concerns on current national conditions and development needs of the Mekong countries. Moreover, the U.S. ruled-based governance comes to conflict with the ASEAN’s traditional norm-based governance. The U.S. is therefore encountering with the insufficiency of the Mekong countries’ political trust, weak willingness of private sector’s participation and the difficulty in effective coordinating activities among the Friends of the Mekong.