On October 26, Cambodia and Thailand signed a “peace accord” on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, formally pledging to de-escalate the situation along their shared border, after a military confrontation in July that left at least 42 people dead and displaced more than 300,000. However, the fundamental points of contention have not been resolved, as demonstrated by the differing interpretations of the joint declaration issued at the Joint Border Committee meeting in Chanthaburi, which preceded the deal in Malaysia. Therefore, the decades-old dispute over the exact border demarcation has only been sedated, and there are indications that it is only a matter of time before it flares up again – even if the last period of calm lasted 14 years.

The origin of the conflict lies in the Franco-Siamese Agreement of 1907, which did not define the border between the present-day states of Thailand and Cambodia precisely enough and led to repeated localized conflicts in the decades following the end of French colonial rule. One could dismiss this border conflict as a problem solely between two neighboring states that have traditionally viewed each other with suspicion, and hope that it will not destabilize the region if it ever does escalate into a full-scale armed conflict.

One could also view it from the perspective of the foreign policy apathy of numerous international actors who are unwilling or unable to contribute constructively to a lasting peace. Above all, the Thai-Cambodian conflict once again highlights the lack of a regional power broker in Southeast Asia, contr