Regional planning's last hurrah: the political economy of the Tumen River regional development plan

This paper describes a regional development plan in North East Asia, in the context of regional planning theory and various geo-political changes which have occurred in the region. Known as the Tumen Regional Development Project, the area encompasses parts of North Korea, China, and Russia. On the one hand, the geography, the presence of raw material, and social factors suggest that there may be unique opportunities to develop the region. At the same time, there is increased competition for capital and resources from other regions in the world. Regionalism, therefore, needs to be seen in a global context. After critiquing the plan from the perspective of contemporary regional planning theory, a call for a ‘new paradigm’ of development is issued, one that considers, for example non-traditional industries such as tourism and emphasizes the management of growth as well as its promotion. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.