Nontraditional Security Challenges and the Geopolitics of Transnational Security Cooperation in the Mekong Region

Alongside China’s deepening economic regionalisation with the lower Mekong countries (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia), nonstate armed groups have continued to pose substantial security challenges such as drug trafficking, cyber scams, and commodity smuggling. This article examines China’s security cooperation with Mekong states to address these nontraditional security (NTS) challenges and the geopolitical dynamics underpinning this cooperation. The cooperation framework encompasses regular joint patrols along the Mekong River, periodic intergovernmental meetings among law enforcement agencies, and the establishment of the Safe Mekong Coordination Center to intercept cross-border drug trafficking. This paper advances two main contributions. First, the Mekong joint patrol mechanism reveals the adaptability of state power in confronting NTS challenges. Rather than engaging in competitive sovereignty claims over water territories or ceding authority to non-state actors such as transnational criminal organisations, Mekong states have developed power-sharing arrangements that facilitate cooperative security regimes aimed at regional stability and economic development. Second, the study contributes to critical understandings of China’s overseas security practices. While prevailing narratives often depict China as an ascendant and unrestrained regional hegemon, the empirical evidence reveals a more complex reality in which cooperative arrangements are shaped by both diplomatic principles and contested regional perceptions. The compliance with agreed-upon rules for joint patrols, coupled with the ambivalence among Southeast Asian states, underscores the contingent and negotiated character of China-led security initiatives.