University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2012 New Means, Old Ends? World Bank Governmentality in Thailand and Lao People's Democratic Republic Nicholas Ryan Zeller [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Zeller, Nicholas Ryan, "New Means, Old Ends? World Bank Governmentality in Thailand and Lao People's Democratic Republic. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1224 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Nicholas Ryan Zeller entitled "New Means, Old Ends? World Bank Governmentality in Thailand and Lao People's Democratic Republic." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Sociology. Paul K. Gellert, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Rachelle Scott, Damayanti Banerjee Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) New Means, Old Ends? World Bank Governmentality in Thailand and Lao People’s Democratic Republic A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Nicholas Ryan Zeller May 2012 Copyright © 2012 by Nicholas R. Zeller All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION To Muad’dib and Doleful iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Paul Gellert, Dr. Rachelle Scott, and Dr. Damayanti Banerjee for their advice and willingness to allow this project to move in the direction it has. iv ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to make explicit the arts of government, defined as a field of power in the Foucauldian sense, employed by the World Bank in the cases of Pak Mun Dam in Thailand and Nam Theun II Dam in Lao PDR. Much of the literature on the latter case, both from the World Bank and its critics, focuses on the incorporation of conservation practices and the creation of state apparatuses which account for natural resources and local populations through a discourse of environmentalism. Using World Bank planning and evaluation documents, I argue that although these practices represent an escalation of the role of environmentalism in the justificatory logic for new hydropower projects, they do not represent a change in the World Bank’s major justificatory mechanism, the presence or absence of institutional structures necessary for present and future project implementation. That is, project justifications continue to rest, on the one hand, on an already established relationship with the borrower such that the World Bank’s technical and managerial expertise can be easily transmitted, or, on the other hand, the presumed likelihood that such a relationship can be established. In either case, the emphasis is on the creation of what I call a seasoned borrower and its inclusion into the production of knowledge legible to development discourse. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Development as Utopia, Exploitation, and Technique ....................................................................... 6 Governmentality and the Proper Location of Analysis .................................................................... 18 Expert Discourse and the Creation of Solvable Problems................................................................ 20 Historical Context............................................................................................................................. 25 Methods and Methodology............................................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER II Pak Mun Dam, Thailand: Constructing a Seasoned Borrower....................................... 36 Pak Mun Dam: A Pre-History .......................................................................................................... 39 Staff Appraisal Report...................................................................................................................... 42 Kaeng Tana National Park........................................................................................................... 53 Fisheries....................................................................................................................................... 55 Health Issues................................................................................................................................ 57 Resettlement and Compensation.................................................................................................. 58 Technical Failures ............................................................................................................................ 62 Fisheries....................................................................................................................................... 65 Resettlement and Compensation.................................................................................................. 69 Implementation Completion Report ................................................................................................. 78 Recent Experience with Involuntary Resettlement Report: Thailand – Pak Mun............................ 93 Pak Mun Dam: A Project Summary............................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER III Nam Theun II Dam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic ........................................... 109 Nam Theun II Dam: Project Overview........................................................................................... 112 The International Environmental and Social Panel of Experts....................................................... 117 First Report of the International Environmental and Social Panel of Experts................................ 119 Conservation .............................................................................................................................. 121 Resettlement and Development ................................................................................................. 127 Planning Nam Theun II Dam: 1997 – 2005 ................................................................................... 135 Planning Conservation: Creating the National Biodiversity Conservation Area....................... 141 Roads and Other Access to the National Biodiversity Conservation Area ........................... 144 Hunting and International Trading........................................................................................ 146 Other Conservation Issues .................................................................................................... 148 Resettlement and Development ................................................................................................. 150 Nakai Plateau ........................................................................................................................ 151 Xe Bang Fai River Basin ...................................................................................................... 154 Project Appraisal Document: The Nam Theun II Hydroelectric Project........................................ 157 Monitoring an Unseasoned Borrower........................................................................................ 160 Implementing Nam Theun II Dam ................................................................................................. 164 Resettlement and Development: Nakai Plateau ......................................................................... 168 Resettlement and Development: Xe Bang Fai River Basin ....................................................... 171 Conservation .............................................................................................................................. 172 Nam Theun II Dam: A Project Summary....................................................................................... 174 CHAPTER IV Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 177 LIST OF REFERENCES.................................................................................................................... 187 APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................... 198 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. 199 Map: Nam Theun II Dam, Lao PDR .............................................................................................. 200 VITA................................................................................................................................................... 201 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION On November