• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.219-261
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• 2018

The conflicts among nations surrounding international rivers are intensifying as worldwide water shortage is getting worse. The Mekong River is a representative trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia shared by six countries, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. As the economy grows, hydroelectric power has become a major power supply source to meet the increasing power demand of the these countries. However, the construction of dams on the Mekong River is controversial because hydroelectric power in the river upstream has a negative impact not only on the whole river ecosystem but also on residents' life around downstream, in particular. In order to understand the controversy arising from international rivers, it is necessary to take into account different positions of countries sharing it. However, studies on the position of a specific country to Mekong hydropower have been conducted mainly focusing on China and Laos. Therefore, this study tried to study the position of Cambodian government which is located downstream of the Mekong River and is likely to bear costs rather than to gain benefits from hydroelectric power generation. What is the attitude of the Cambodian government to the hydroelectric development of the upper Mekong and what is the reason for that? The study confirmed the Cambodian government's support for dam construction on the Mekong River. It also figured out influential factors on the formation of such a position as follows: 1) economic asymmetry with China, 2) power dependency and geographical asymmetry in Laos, and 3) importance of hydroelectric power in Cambodia.