Next-Generation Challenges of Regional Governance The recent navigation accord, controversies over the downstream consequences of the Yali Falls Dam, and the unwillingness of the Chinese and Thai governments to submit their dam development projects to regional review have this in common: they each point to inadequacies in current arrangements for deciding on development schemes in the basin with significant Irans-boundary effects. It is casy to fault the Mekong River Commission for failing to ensure that such schemes face region-wide deliberation and for failing to safeguard affected groups downstream. But it would be a scrious mistake to focus exclusively on the perfomance of ue MRC without regard for the broader context in which this institution exists.