This week marks 25 years since the Paris Peace Accords marked the official beginning of the end of the violent civil war in Cambodia. The anniversary offers an opportunity to reflect on the hard-won lessons of how to rebuild after decades of conflict, the challenge of postwar justice, and how Cambodian peacebuilding efforts might be useful to other contemporary conflicts.
A turning point
It was not only Cambodia’s internal factions that fought over power, interests and control of Cambodia. Vietnam, Thailand, China, the Soviet Union and the US all engaged at various levels, and all needed to be involved in negotiating a …read more