Navigating Mainland Southeast Asia: Mekong Governance, Cyber Scams, and Regional Flashpoints

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On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, journalist Anton L. Delgado will moderate sessions on environmental issues associated with the Mekong River and on the legacies of war as part of the meeting “Navigating Mainland Southeast Asia: Mekong Governance, Cyber Scams, and Regional Flashpoints,” in Washington, D.C.

The Stimson Center, the convening’s primary organizer, is an implementing partner of the Mekong-U.S. Partnership and has several programs focused on the region, including efforts to promote sustainable development and science diplomacy to conserve the Mekong’s resources and to identify and promote the need for further cleanup of unexploded ordnance and dioxin in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

The Stimson Center wrote: “A prosperous and secure mainland Southeast Asia can lead to remarkable economic development that will benefit Americans with trade and investment opportunities, yet the burgeoning region is also home to a major ongoing conflict in Myanmar and is fraught with challenges related to natural resource conservation, a flagging human rights record, and recovery from conflicts in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The Mekong Region has also emerged as a key front for constructive competition between China and the United States.”

The multi-session event will involve professionals from multiple spheres, including government, policy research, and journalism. H.E. Nguyen Quoc Dzung, the Vietnam ambassador to the United States, will provide a keynote address.

Delgado, a 2022 and 2023 Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Fellow, will be in conversation for the Mekong River environmental issues session with Brian Eyler, a Stimson Center Senior Fellow who directs the Southeast Asia Program and the Energy, Water, and Sustainability program; Zeb S. Hogan, host of National Geographic’s Monster Fish and a research biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno; and Pai Deetes, Southeast Asia Program regional campaigns director at International Rivers. Deetes will be joining the conversation virtually.

For the legacies of war session, Delgado will be joined by Sera Koulabdara, CEO of Legacies of War, and Susan Hammond, executive director of the War Legacies Project. Both Koulabdara and Hammond are co-chairs of the Stimson Center’s War Legacies Working Group.

This convening is supported by the Chino-Cienega Center, the Pulitzer Center, and the Mekong-U.S. Partnership.

For more information and to register, please visit the Stimson Center event page.

This event is hybrid, with registration available for in-person or online participation.