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IS410 Major Assignment Cambodia-Thailand Border Conflict

Jan 07, 2024, 6 min read

IS410 Major Assignment

Group 5 Members

  1. Chea Resan
  2. Chhum Sovannaroth
  3. Ranvorng Virakthida
  4. Seak Chan Piseth
  5. Soun Noby

Timeline

  • In 1962, ICJ ruled in Cambodia favor using Western’s idea of equity instead of objective rigid interpretation of the international laws
    • It made Cambodia doubt if ICJ can be predictable and useful in the future
      • Non-Asian idea used: therefore, no Asian countries from then on used ICJ for their border disputes and others
    • This decision also didn’t cover the area around the temple, causing the tension to continue
      • Another ICJ ruling won’t happen because Cambodia stands to lose while Thailand stands to win. No consensus, no ruling.
        • Therefore the only way is negotiation or mediation
  • 2008: UNESCO World Heritage, troops contact, UNESCO won’t hear calls for help
    • Because Vietnam as Chair convinced diplomatic negotiation was better option
    • Both sides agreed to discuss in Joint Border Comission
      • What is Joint Border Comission
  • Attempts at negotiation
    • The deal was reached after Thai Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha met his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Banh, in Phnom Penh in 2011 1
    • How many diplomatic negotiations were there before the ICJ?
    • Both sides had tried to use bilateral mechanism to contain and manage the conflict.
      • There were frequent meetings between the foreign ministers and defence ministers of both countries in order to build trust and mutual understanding to avoid conflict.
      • However, it failed to produce any expected outcome.
      • Within such context, Cambodia approached ASEAN and the United Nations for an appropriate intervention in order to maintain peace and stability in the region.
        • Adjudication
        • ASEAN (ARF): Cambodia requested it, but due to non-consensus from Thailand, ASEAN couldn’t do anything
        • Both bilateral and multilateral efforts failed to prevent an open armed conflict between the two countries.
          • On October 3, 2008, the troops from both sides exchanged fire near the temple.
          • Conflicts until 2011

Planning

  • 5 weeks to finish from March 16, 2022
  • Finish research 2022-04-25
  • Finish on Final Draft 2022-04-26
  • IS201-G3-Assignment on Cambodia Thailand Preah Vihear Conflict
  • Contents
    • The diplomatic negotiation process (Thida)
      • Analyze the process
      • Party strategies
      • What techniques or strategies each party used
        • Which was effective?
    • Challenges (Noby)
      • The use of military force instead of diplomatic negotiation
      • Why ASEAN unity didn’t solve it
      • Why couldn’t it be solved with diplomatic negotiation, why lead to adjudication
    • Opportunities: that each parties had, and did they take them (Resan)
      • Benefits from the negotiation
        • Domestic Political opporutnity for Cambodia: popularity for national voting
        • Pride: who owns Preah Vihear
    • Final outcome: ICJ ruling (Sovannaroth)
      • After math: what resulted from the decision by the ICJ
    • Lessons learned: what could each parties have done better (Piseth)
      • Is the conclusion
      • Must also do the intro
      • What could have ICJ done better?
      • Why did it fail?

Opportunity

  • Book Conflict Management and Resolution by Ho-Won Jeong

    • Identity: political tool
    • Polarize the separation between two groups (enemy vs self) for political goal

  • Cambodia-Thailand More than material interest historical, religious temple

    • Ever present tension (Khmer/Siam)
    • This is why Preah Vihear in UNESCO World Heritage as Cambodian angered Thai publics

  • Proceeding confrontational and unconceeding positions also explained by identity

    • Pre-assumptions
    • Self-confirming bias
    • Ungiving stance
    • All due to pride
    • Which led to diplomatic negotiation failure -> adjudication

  • Once again, polarization, clear ‘enemy’,

    • To unify leading up to a conflict
      • Materialize behind political party
      • Domestic stability

  • Clash of two nations -> opportunity for political hold

    • Stirred up nationalist incentives on both sides

  • Cambodia nationalist support

    • Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) win a landslide victory in 2008 election

  • Different story for Thailand, street protests of government

    • “unfavourable court verdicts and the parliamentary opposition”
    • Accused new gov of incompetence and selling out
    • Several foreign ministers resigned

  • From the lessons of the book Conflict Management and Resolution by Ho-Won Jeong, identity can be used as political tools. The lines between each sides of the opposing groups may be widened beyond reality to further polarize their two groups and eventually attain their political objective 2. The protracted challenge in this border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand represent more than the material interest of aquiring the historical and religious temple, but it also express the ever present tension between the historical adversaries of Khmer and Siam of centuries. This is why the outrage of the addition of the Preah Vihear Temple into the UNESCO World Heritage sites list under Cambodia’s name angered the publics of Thailand to such extent. The confrontational and unconceeding positions held by both nations can also be explained by Jeong’s chapter on Identity. The preassumption of self-confirming bias and the ungiving stance of each side due to pride is what eventually led Cambodia and Thailand to fail in diplomatic negotiations and must rely on adjudication 2.

  • In times of crisis especially ones with a clear ‘enemy’, states tend to unify either materialize politically behind a political party or in the form of domestic stability in the lead up to conflicts 3. In this case, the clash of the two nations also presented the opportunity of political hold. The issue had stirred up nationalist incentives on both sides. In Cambodia, the nationalist support and wins gathered by the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) had led it to win a landslide victory in the 2008 election 4. However, it was a different story for Thailand. Street demonstrators protested against the government for “unfavourable court verdicts and the parliamentary opposition”, accused the new government as incompetent and selling out to Cambodia, and forced several foreign ministers to resign 4.

  • What opportunities exists for both parties after the dispute was settled?

  • Is the dispute still ongoing?

  • Presentation

    • 15-20 mins presenting
    • 5-10 minutes Q&A

  • 2022-05-18 IS410 Group 1 & 2 presentation

  • 2022-05-25 IS410 Group 3 & 4 presentation

  • 2022-06-01 IS410 Group 5 & 6 presentation

Tip

  • Theres 2 different sets of challenges and opportunities
    • Challenges and opportunities that suppured on by the negotiation itself
    • Challenges and opportunities that is created by the agreed upon agreement after the negotiation
      • If the deal isn’t done yet, you can predict or guess
  • If you wanna include both, thats fine. Just announce what your intention of the scope is during the presentation

References

Footnotes

  1. Thailand and Cambodia reach deal on temple border - BBC News ↩

  2. CMRAI - Conflict Management and Resolution An Introduction ↩ ↩2

  3. Bertoli_berkeley_0028E_16280.pdf ↩

  4. BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Political tensions driving temple row ↩ ↩2

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