MYP IDU
 “Whose Conflict Is It Anyway?” Proposal and Research Question 

Student: Doan Ly Minh                                                          Subject: IDU- Conflicts 

METHODOLOGY

Topic that interests me:

Environmental issues - Water conflict

Why am I interested in this topic?

Personally, I have a very passionate interest in studying the environment. At a young age, I
was always concerned about the environment around me. I think that interest came to me as
a very natural way. I think that the environment is an important part that humans cannot live
without. The environment provides conditions for us to rely on. However, we keep harming
and devastating the environment by our activities. This made me feel very ashamed and
upset about what humans have done. This is the reason why I always research about
environmental issues around the world and especially water pollution. But why did I choose
water pollution instead of other environmental issues? I must say that every issue is important
for our awareness and needs to be solved. However, water conflict is extremely crucial and
popular in my country, Vietnam. In my country, the water sources are heavily polluted due to
the rapid industrial and economical development of Vietnam. Since I feel that water pollution
in the domestic use of many Vietnamese families has been affected, I have started to care a
lot about water pollution.

(Five sources)  (research in deep web / academic resources) LRC Website

https://eishcmclrc.wordpress.com/
e.g. JSTOR, DOAJ, Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, Scientific
American, The Economist, New Scientist, Google Scholar, Google Dataset Search
Use MLA 8 Citation Style (MyBib Citation Generator)

Nadia Deyaa Shkara. “Water Conflict on the Mekong River.” ResearchGate, Innovative Journal, June

2018, www.researchgate.net/publication/325572144_Water_conflict_on_the_Mekong_River.

Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.

‌
Sticklor, Russell. “Managing the Mekong: Conflict or Compromise?” New Security Beat, 2010,

www.newsecuritybeat.org/2010/12/managing-the-mekong-conflict-or-compromise/. Accessed

22 Nov. 2020.

DW News. “Are Dams Killing the Mekong River? | DW News.” YouTube, 18 Jan. 2020,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOg6s2YB0Fg. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.

“Environmental Security and Regional Politics in the Mekong Basin.” Wilson Center, 2020,

www.wilsoncenter.org/event/environmental-security-and-regional-politics-the-mekong-

basin. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.

“Asia’s Water War: Is The Mekong Still A River?” Asia’s Water War: Is The Mekong Still A

River? | WhatsOrb, Oct. 2019, www.whatsorb.com/climate/asia-s-water-war-the-

power-of-china-over-the-important-mekong-river. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.

‌
LINE OF INQUIRY

What topic area do you want to investigate in detail?

The topic that i am choosing is about water conflict - Mekong river.

Why is this question worth investigating? (What new knowledge or perspectives will be
gained?)

This question is worth investigating because as everyone knows, the old water conflict has
become a big problem that many people are concerned about. Water conflict can cause
certain incidents and difficulties in using water.As everyone knows, the old water conflict has
become a big problem that many people are concerned about. Water conflict can cause
certain incidents and difficulties in using water. Furthermore, the physical problem that I have
researched about is the mekong river. These investigations are necessary because the
mekong river flows through 6 countries, including my Vietnam. I need to do research on this
issue to better understand the difficulties and challenges in using water that people live in
river areas. In addition, since the conflict of the Mekong would affect the economy, politics
and relations with other countries of Vietnam, I needed to investigate it, since I am a
Vietnamese, I need to know. is clear about his country, as well as the problems Vietnam is
facing.  I think through the investigation of the conflict of the mekong river, my personal
perspective will be more diverse and richer, I will see a conflict from many aspects such as
pros, cons, economy, politics.

Key terms/Subject headings terms to define and investigate

1)Advantages (China and Thailand)

2)Disadvantages (others countries)
3)Utilization 
4)Exploitation 
5)Economical effects
6))Political effects
7)Prevention

Investigative Plan (what steps are you going to take?)

1. I need to find out basic information about Mekong and how the conflict was
started. 

 Research about the positive and negative impact of the conflict on countries 

 Research about the Economical effects 

 Research about the Political effects

 Gather informations to conduct  ways to solve/prevent this conflict 

Describe your intended methods of investigation

The method that i am going to do in order to gather information will be through websites,
interviews from people who were involved with the Mekong river conflict as well as the graph
index of economical rate of countries that are affected by this river.

What are some possible obstacles, limitations, or problems which might occur?
How are you going to deal with them?

During the investigation process, the only difficulties I have to deal with is there are
limitations in the number of sources I can use to research in depth. I can only use as many as
5 sources, I think i need more sources to support my topic.

What are your anticipated conclusions?

I can say from the investigations about the mekong river conflict, the current state of the
mekong will get worse and worse. Next is the level of competition among countries Laos,
Cambodia, China and Vietnam will become more tense, with the possibility of war between
these countries. To be more specific, the water flow from the Mekong River to the
downstream countries will be very little, leading to a decrease in the fisheries and fishing
sectors of Vietnam and Cambodia. In addition, the agricultural industry of Vietnam will be
severely affected because there is not enough water to supply the crops. Finally, climate as
well as households living on both sides of the river will be severely affected. In addition, the
possibility of storms and climate changes will be more frequent.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Developing the research question(RQ)

Consider the following:
 Theme
 Context
 Topic
Research question RQ here

Proposed Research Question (clear, focused, arguable)

To what extent can we equally share the utilization and exploitation of water resources by the
six countries that the Mekong River flows through, including China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand,
Cambodia and Vietnam?
How does this RQ answer the requirements of the IDU?

In my opinion, I think that this research question does answer the requirements of the IDU.
The reason why I am saying this is that in order to answer this question, I need to gather all
the information about the water conflict in Mekong river. This question can be seen as a
prevention for this conflict, and is an important factor to bring the Mekong River into
equilibrium.

Feedback:




Teacher comments:

Signature:                                           Date