The recent ceasefire and ongoing talks between Thailand and Cambodia are fragile bandages over a long-festering wound. It was brokered by Malaysia – and closely observed by China and the US, along with other Southeast Asian countries – after weeks of escalating military clashes, a politically explosive phone call, and open hostilities that threatened to turn a simmering border dispute into a regional conflagration. The current calm is welcome, but may prove temporary. Without reckoning with deeper historical, domestic political and geopolitical dynamics driving this conflict, it is only a question of when, not if, we will see another round of confrontation.
Old Borders, New Battles: Thailand, Cambodia and an Unfinished War | Royal United Services Institute
