(Re)securitizing Food Policy in Vietnam: The Mekong Delta Plan and the Discourse Metamorphosis

ABSTRACT In 2013, the Mekong Delta Plan (MDP) was jointly introduced by the Dutch and Vietnamese governments as a long‐term, “no regret” policy vision to develop an “economically attractive, climate adaptive and environmentally sustainable” delta. To what extent have the Vietnamese decisionmakers' food security discourses transformed and adapted in the opportune context provided by the MDP? How can we account for the patterns of continuity and change in their policy discourses over the years? Drawing upon the literatures of authoritarian environmental state and securitization theory, and based on a thematic analysis of 112 official policy documents, my research presents the following findings: (1) Whilst embracing the idea of agricultural diversification, Vietnamese policymakers have not shifted away from a predominant emphasis on rice output and export in conceptualizing national food security; (2) their food security discourses continue to embody the political imperative deeply rooted in regime legitimacy concerns, which not only pivot around economic growth, poverty reduction, social stability, and natural disaster alleviation, but have also expanded to the climate mandate; and (3) frames of food safety, hygiene, and quality are gaining robust traction, which have been incorporated into more recent discourses and have dovetailed with the elites' aspiration for international recognition of Vietnamese agricultural produce. Overall, I argue that the ruling elites in Vietnam, driven by rising environmental challenges and political imperatives, have performed as strategic securitizing actors to remold food policy discourses, endorsing, reinforcing and expanding legitimacy claims in the macro policy context facilitated by the MDP.