Networked Governance in Transnational Cooperation and Politics: Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic Along Thai-Laos Cross-Border Communities

The outbreak of COVID-19 is a transnational threat challenging states and people beyond the frontiers. This study focuses on the networked governance in three Thai-Lao cross-border communities as a practice of transnational and political cooperative systems in surveilling, preventing, and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. The research aims at (1) investigating the involvement of public, private sectors, and civil society in establishing participatory networks in dealing with the pandemic in Thai-Lao border communities; (2) analyzing the potential and strength of the networks of relationships; and (3) discovering guidelines on future disease outbreaks management. By using qualitative methodology and working with 59 key informants, this study discovers the roles of relevant actors in five participatory networks. It also found the horizontally and vertically grand networks of governing cooperation and collaboration among key actors as the potential and strength of the networks of relationships at community and transnational levels. Moreover, forming transnational networks among governmental agencies in twin cities along natural borders is considered a fundamental approach to developing Thai-Laos areas of cooperation. The research concludes that the networks of cooperation and collaboration during the pandemic at border areas are increasingly significant as the front-line mechanisms for effective management.