In the thirty years after the Second World War, Cambodia witnessed the reassertion of colonial power, the spread of nationalism, the birth and growth of a communist party, the achievement of independence, the stifling reform during the decade of peace, the rise of an armed domestic insurgency, the encroachment of an international war, massive bombardment and civilian casualties, pogroms and ethnic ‘cleansing’ of religious minorities. From 1975 to 1979, genocide took another 1.7 million lives. Then, after liberation from the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia survived a decade of foreign occupation, international isolation, and guerrilla terror and harassment. UN intervention and democratic transition were followed by Cambodia’s defeat of the Khmer Rouge in 1999 amid continuing internal tension and political confrontation.




Against this backdrop of more than thirty years of conflict in Cambodia, Conflict and Change in Cambodia brings together primary documents and secondary analyses that offer fresh and informed insights into Cambodia’s political and environmental history.


This book was previously published as a special issue of Critical Asian Studies.