Regional Collaboration in Europe and Asia; Learning from the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSR) and the Greater Mekong Sub-regional (GMS)

This research focuses on investigating comparatively the origins and dynamics of sub-regional projects in the form of international river basins (IRB) in two different geographic settings, with one case study in Central Europe, and another one in Southeast Asia, namely the European Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) and the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). This research recognizes that different levels of regional integration processes, like regional and sub-regional, and the dynamics behind them need to be distinguished from each other. These two case studies show a number of sub-regional characteristics, like cooperation at the local level, even transcending national borders, for supporting local economic development, in supporting related infrastructure development and inter-connectivity, shared energy supply and generation, shared tourism, and people-to-people exchange. They also share another commonality of sub-regional cooperation dynamic, the interaction of different actors across a range of issues and hierarchies, involving state and non-state actors. At the same time, they differ with regard in characterizing their integration process as either bottom-up or top-down. Lastly, they cannot be explained without taking into consideration both specific local aspects and the regional and global structural environment.