Cambodia's Foreign Relations in Regional and Global Contexts - First Edition

While there has been a considerable increase in journal articles, op-eds and media reporting on Cambodia’s foreign affairs, there had not been a book that provides a comprehensive discussion on Cambodia’s foreign relations in historical and contemporary contexts across the regions.

This book is divided into ive main parts: Part I includes this Readers’ Guide of the Editors Board and an introduction chapter (Chapter 1), which discusses the interplay between each Cambodian regime’s political order and their foreign relations from the end of World War II in 1945 through the end of Cambodia’s civil war in 1998. In doing so, the chapter provides a broad overview of each political regime’s vision of the country and their respective pursuit of national interests within the constraints of the changing structure of regional and international politics. The chapter then concludes with a brief reflection about historical lessons and future orientation of Cambodia’s domestic and foreign policy.

Part II: Relations with Neighboring Countries and Maritime Southeast Asia, comprised of six chapters (Chapters 2–7), examines Cambodia’s relations with neighboring countries, namely hailand, Vietnam, and Laos, as well as with countries in maritime Southeast Asia. It is worth noting that as Cambodia’s relations with neighboring hailand and Vietnam have relatively been of immense historical and political signiicance (at times marked by tensions), the Editors Board decided to invite authors from each respective country to contribute a chapter from their country’s perspective, so as to ofer the readers a more nuanced understanding of Cambodia’s complex relationships with its two larger neighbors.

Part III: Relations with Regional and Global Powers consists of 8 chapters and focuses on Cambodia’s relations with countries and regional blocs that have had historical and economic ties with Cambodia. hese include Cambodia’s relations with the European Union, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, the United States, Russia, and India.

Part IV: Membership in International Organizations discusses Cambodia’s engagement with inter-governmental bodies. It contains two chapters, each of which provides an overview of Cambodia’s role and membership in regional and multilateral institutions by concentrating speciically on ASEAN and the United Nations. Lastly, Part V: Economic Integration and Security Cooperation includes chapters on Cambodia’s defense security outlook, projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), as well as the discussion of Cambodia’s links to regional integration and global economic and inancial architecture through aid, trade, investment, along with an analysis of a perspective of changing political, economic, security, and socio-cultural landscapes of Cambodia in the region and the world.