Beyond periodic headlines around China-U.S. shifts, scam networks and border conflicts, a new book examines Cambodia’s evolving foreign policy futures in a wider global and regional perspective.
WonkCount: 1,257 words (~6 minutes)
Review: Beyond War and Scams in Cambodia Foreign Policy
Context
“Currently, there are no online scam compounds,” the chief of Cambodia’s counter-scam unit said this past week in a comment that generated no shortage of international headlines and controversy1. While even the country’s own state-owned media outlets have subsequently clarified that the selective focus on the remark obscures several important caveats made — including on the types of scam centers being discussed which officials and diplomats privately say has itself been changing in recent months — it was nonetheless another instance of the wider global and regional stakes at play in Cambodia’s evolving external outlook, with other recent cases in point being recent efforts to stabilize strained U.S.-Cambodia defense ties as well as the approach to managing border conflict tensions with Thailand2.
Select Key Recent Security-Related Developments in Southeast Asia
A new book Cambodia’s Foreign Relations in Regional and Global Contexts edited by Deth Sok Udom examines a key country’s evolving foreign policy futures in a wider global and regional perspective beyond periodic headlines around China-US shifts, scam networks and border conflicts3. In doing so, as Cambodia senior minister Sok Siphana notes in an introductory endorsement of the book, it adds a timely set of perspectives at a time when Cambodia has confronted what he called “the darkest moment” of its foreign policy of the past decade following cross-border clashes with neighboring Thailand, alongside “both fear and hope” in relations with the United States and regional tensions and open conflicts that “continue to simmer” in the Middle East, Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific4. “The road ahead is very rocky and full of risks and danger,” one of the introductory chapters of the book notes ahead of other contributions that delve more specifically into the evolving global, regional and domestic dynamics at play5.
Analysis
The book also highlights key policy datapoints and implications (see originally-generated ASEAN Wonk table below for a summary of important contours. Paying subscribers can also read the rest of the “Analysis” section and “Implications” section looking at how these dynamics play out in the future).
Future Policy Datapoints to Watch, Along With Select Key Aspects And Major Areas
