• Southeast Asia

Dr. Richard P. Cronin is the director of the Southeast Asia program at Stimson.  He works on transboundary and nontraditional security issues in the Mekong Basin and Southeast Asia, from a political economy perspective.

Recently, Cronin has written or co-authored several articles on Thailand's regional relations.  He is the lead co-author of Mekong Tipping Point: Hydropower Dams, Human Security and Regional Stability, and co-producer of a documentary video by the same name. This project focused on the environmental and food security impacts of mainstream dams being constructed on the Upper Mekong in China, and planned for the Lower Mekong by Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

Cronin joined Stimson after a long career with the Congressional Research Service (CRS). He taught Asian comparative political economy at Johns Hopkins University, and at Chuo University in Tokyo, and gave short courses on the comparative economic development of East Asia for government officials and other professionals in Vietnam and Laos.

Cronin earned a BS in economics and history,  and an MA in European history from the University of Houston. He holds a PhD in modern South Asian history from Syracuse University. Cronin also served in Vietnam as a brigade-level intelligence officer with the US Army's 1st Infantry Division in 1965-66.

Selected Publications

Mekong Tipping Point: Hydropower Dams, Human Security, and Regional Stability, Richard Cronin and Timothy Hamlin (Stimson, 2010).

Mekong Tipping Point (video coproducer, Stimson, 2010).

 “Mekong Dams and the Perils of Peace” (Survival, 2009).

Exploiting Natural Resources: Growth, Instability, and Conflict in the Middle East and Asia, Richard Cronin and Amit Pandya (eds.), (Stimson Center, January 2009).

"The Security Dimension of Transboundary Resources Management in Southeast Asia," in Amit Pandya and Ellen Laipson (eds.), Transnational Trends: Middle Eastern and Asian Views, (Stimson Center, July 2008).

"The Second Bush Administration and Southeast Asia," in Kenji Takita (ed.) Emerging Geopolitical Situations in the Asia-Pacific Region, (Tokyo: Chuo University Press, 2008), pp. 13-37.

"Thai-US Economic Partnership: Opportunities and Limitations," in Thiparat and Phetcharatana (eds.) Thai-US Relations: Forging a New Parternship in the 21st Century, (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand, 2007), pp. 95-119.

"A New US-ASEAN Trade Tack," Published in The Wall Street Journal Asia/WSJOnline, February 9, 2006

"The North Korean Nuclear Threat and the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance" (Fletcher Forum, Winter 2005)

"Growth and Governance in Asia: Significance for Regional Growth and Stability." Chapter 2 in Yoichiro Sato (ed.), Growth and Governance in Asia (Honolulu: Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, 2004), pp. 9-24.

"Asian Economies: The Dynamics of Progress," in Kugler and Frost (eds.), The Global Century: Globalization and National Security, Vol. II (Washington: NDU Press, 2001), pp. 951-983.

Asian Financial Crisis: An Analysis of U.S. Foreign Policy Interests and Options. A Congressional Research Service Report to Congress, No. 98-74, Updated April 3, 1998 (Washington: Congressional Research Service, 1998).

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