This research examines the impact of the WTO accession process on the economic reform process of Vietnam. The WTO accession provided a decisive external force to accelerate and lock-in domestic reforms. Accession acted as a template to inform and structure the reform process. The process was utilised by reformers help rescue Vietnam from economic crisis. With the extensive reform of economic institutions, the opening up to the market economy and the input of foreign capital, the Vietnamese economy showed rapid growth, moving from being the poorest country in the world to a middle ranking economy by 2013. In the first and second chapters the objectives of the thesis are explained and the contextual framework and research design are presented, with the focus being on the economic reform of Vietnam. A literature review is followed by a comparative analysis of China’s accession to the WTO. In the third and fourth chapters, both the Vietnam political and economic systems and processes are presented in the context of Vietnam’s transition from a centrally commanded economy to a market economy. A full examination is made done of the Communist Party and its governance mechanisms. Chapters five, six and seven concentrate on three case studies that evaluate the impact of the WTO on three Vietnam economic sectors; Agriculture, Banking and Textiles. The conclusion demonstrates that the thesis research provides a unique new contribution to the literature as it revealed limits to the reach of WTO accession in accelerating domestic reforms. It identified the structural impediments to the fullfledged transformation of what was an insulated command economy into a globally integrated market economy. Endemic corruption, a growing debt burden and the influence of a powerful and wealthy elite interest group now threaten the Vietnam economy with a severe financial crisis. The reforms have failed to provide the necessary tools to avert the impending crisis. How and why this is the case is explained in the thesis.

The developmental state has been widely credited as the most important factor behind the East Asian post-ar “miracles.” Indeed, it is generally seen as having helped to shift the weight of the international economic order towards ‘the East.’ However, the dominance of processes associated with ‘globalisation’ at the beginning of the twenty-first century is commonly thought to have substantially undermined the viability and potential of this state-led development model. Yet, the recent rapid transformation of some emerging economies, notably China and Vietnam, suggests that this economic development model may remain important even in an era of globalisation. Taking Vietnam as a case study, this thesis argues that despite significant differences in the actions, capacities and ideological orientations between the Vietnamese state and other states in the region, the political leaders of Vietnam have followed the interventionist, state-led pattern of development that is connected to the successful East Asian developmental states. As a consequence, and on the basis of the original empirical research undertaken here, the thesis further argues that despite the potentially transformative impact of processes associated with globalisation, the developmental state, or the state-led development model, remains a viable, influential, and persistent feature of the development processes in Vietnam.

This dissertation examines the theory and practice of development in South Vietnam’s Second Republic from the aftermath of the 1968 Tet Offensive to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. Based on Vietnamese and American archival material, it explores the development approaches of both the South Vietnamese and United States governments. In particular, it examines the ways in which South Vietnamese elites and U.S. officials in Washington and Saigon responded to the various development paradigms on offer to postcolonial states between the 1950s and 1970s, namely modernization theory, community development, land reform, and an emerging neoliberal economics. In doing so the dissertation makes three primary arguments. In contrast to much of the literature on the final years of the American War in Vietnam, this dissertation argues that development remained a crucial component of the United States’ and South Vietnamese strategy after the Tet Offensive. It highlights both the continuities and changes in U.S. approaches to international development between the Johnson and Nixon years as well as arguing that debates about development strategies in Vietnam during this time presaged larger shifts in international development later in the 1970s. Secondly, it argues that South Vietnamese elites had a transnational development vision. They not only employed U.S. theories of development but also drew on the lessons offered by other states in the Global South, particularly Taiwan and South Korea. Finally, the dissertation argues that the South Vietnamese government employed development to earn domestic legitimacy and shore up its authoritarian governance. The dissertation makes three historiographical interventions. Firstly, it illuminates U.S. development practice in the Nixon era. Secondly, the dissertation shows that South Vietnamese officials shaped development outcomes, thus granting agency that is largely absent from accounts of this period. Finally, it demonstrates that historians must place South Vietnam within the larger framework of decolonization and East Asian anti-Communism.

The purpose of this mixed-methods case study research is to discover how, in relation to trade liberalisation in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, intangible assets affect livelihood outcomes of the ethnic majority Kinh and the ethnic minority Khmer people. Methods used include a random survey of 150 ethnic majority (Kinh) rice farmers combined with focus group data from Khmer ethnic minority people. Data shows that lack of access to information about the changing economic circumstances generated by trade reform has caused farmers to take sub-optimal decisions about the diversification of their crops. The economic outcomes on Khmer farmers have also been negatively affected by a lack of information, compounded by rigid gender roles, lack of education, discrimination, language problems and isolation from the majority ethnic group. These factors have contributed considerably to the negative outcomes of liberalisation, including loss of land, and have impeded people's ability to make use of emerging opportunities, including better access to markets and new ways of making a livelihood. This research shows that intangible assets interact with trade liberalisation to exacerbate existing inequalities.