The Tumen River Project - sensemaking in multiple contexts

The core theme of this article is cross-border economic zones. Such zones are regarded as useful way to increase economic cooperation between the participating nations. However, not all zones live up to the expectations, while others seem to be able to continue forever. The author intends to offer a new methodology of analysing cross-border economic zones, embedded in organisation theory that is hoped to have a higher explanatory power to account for otherwise unexplainable failure or success. As an example, the Tumen River Area Development Zone, consisting of regions of three nations, China, Russia and North Korea has been selected. This zone seems to be very resilient, in spite of the turbulent history of the region and the difficult relationships between the three participating nations. The main conclusion of this study is that the zone also makes sense to another nation, which is not directly participating in the zone. The indirect support of that nation is probably the force behind the continuation of the zone.