Thailand’s military launched air strikes along the Thailand-Cambodia border after both nations accused each other of breaching a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Tom Pepinsky, a professor of government at Cornell University who studies political and economic systems in Southeast Asia, says that Thailand and Cambodia have long had fraught relations.
Pepinsky says: “Instances of territorial conflict between kingdoms in the two respective countries go back hundreds of years. The current conflict centers on several temples in a border region that both Thailand and Cambodia claim, and the border established during the colonial era has been a source of diplomatic friction since the 1960s.
“Although neither country wants a full-scale war, both countries see the contested temples and surrounding territory as important to their national histories and identities, and domestic politics in both countries exacerbates these tensions.
“Thailand’s military, which has always been a major political actor, enjoys a rally-around-the-flag effect after decades of contentious swings between military and civilian governments. Cambodia’s relatively new Prime Minister, Hun Manet, has a military background and is a West Point graduate, and is careful to defend any perceived challenge to Cambodia’s sovereignty from its neighbors.”
