Cambodian Case Research Articles

Embodied national history: leaders, regime change, and regional historiographical trends of independent Cambodia

Abstract Post-independence national historical writings have often been seen as a product of nationalist advocacy and modern nation-state formation. Moving beyond this perspective, this article considers how political leaders took a direct role in promoting different kinds and forms of collective historical thoughts to strengthen their leadership. Specifically, the article explores an active engagement of independent Cambodia's leaders such as Prince Sihanouk, Lon Nol, and Pol Pot, who independently saw national historical understanding as one's own monopolized source of power. It also discusses how different historical accounts in the country were shaped by, and kept up with, other important factors such as Cold War confrontations and regional and global historiographical trends, including “Modernist” and “Marxist” approaches. Discussing these factors helps us understand more critically national historical accounts, which were closely intertwined with specific socioreligious and political circumstances such as political rule and legitimacy, widespread public anxieties, and geopolitical tensions. It also sheds light on the substantial impact of state-imposed historical interpretations on society. As informed by the Cambodian case, this impact can be seen in the implementation of state projects stirred by certain kinds of historical understanding which consequently transformed the living conditions of thousands of people.

Vernacularising human dignity in human rights education: a Cambodian case study

ABSTRACT In this article we interrogate the potential value of ‘human dignity’ as a tool for vernacularisation in the context of human rights education (HRE), drawing on legal higher education in Cambodia as a case study. To do so, we first outline the role of human dignity in human rights education, flagging that while the concept has been identified as a principle, goal, and tool of HRE, there has been little reflection on its diverse and contested meanings across and within different contexts. Drawing on a range of scholarship that interrogates human dignity, vernacularisation and HRE, as well as original data collected in Cambodia between 2020 and 2022, we explore the opportunities and challenges associated with using human dignity as a tool for HRE in Cambodia. We conclude by offering some reflections on the process of drafting a ‘human dignity curriculum’ for use in Cambodia’s legal higher education.

Eisenhower & Cambodia: Diplomacy, Covert Action and the Origins of the Second Indochina War by William J. Rust

<i>Eisenhower &amp; Cambodia: Diplomacy, Covert Action and the Origins of the Second Indochina War</i> by William J. Rust

Transnationalizing the ‘Moral neoliberal’? Private aid initiatives in Cambodia

ABSTRACTWithin South East Asia, informal, non-state development actors have become more prominent. The case of small-scale, private aid activities in Cambodia offers the opportunity to reflect on how state frameworks and interventions matter for such projects. Typically, theories of how a state encourages its citizens’ pro-social behaviour while retracting is own commitments, view this within a single nation state. Citizen aid in Cambodia, however, is often characterised by collaborations between national and international peers, and relies, to some extent, on resource flows along those networks. It encourages us to think through such approaches transnationally. This means broadening the analytical framework of the ‘moral neoliberal' (Muehlebach 2012, The Moral Neoliberal: Welfare and Citizenship in Italy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press) to account for the fact that activities of thus-responsibilised citizens expand beyond the confines of their nation state. In the Cambodian case, a lack of public service provision, combined with a hitherto loosely regulated third sector, have created conditions where such initiatives have proliferated. The case of private aid thus challenges the scope of ‘moral neoliberal', as conceived within the framework of a nation state, as it leaves out of sight those ‘ethical citizens’ who are active transnationally.

「人間の安全保障」のための法整備支援 ――カンボジアの事例再考――

「人間の安全保障」のための法整備支援 ――カンボジアの事例再考――

Health shocks and natural resource extraction: A Cambodian case study

Health shocks are common and have serious consequences for the rural poor in developing countries. In this study, we examine the impact of health shocks of household members on the household’s vulnerability to poverty. We also analyze the role of natural resource extraction in dealing with health shocks to smooth household consumption. We use a panel dataset of 550 households in 30 rural villages in Cambodia collected from two survey waves in 2013 and 2014. Our findings reveal that there is a significant association between health shocks and vulnerability to poverty and that the extraction of natural resources is important in consumption smoothing when rural households are faced with health shocks. We suggest that while maintaining natural resource stocks, there is a need to reduce pressures on such resources by developing irrigation systems and non-farm employment sectors.

The Technological Trajectory of Integrated Pest Management for Rice in Cambodia

For the past two decades, while the efficacy of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been successfully demonstrated in Cambodia, its dissemination and sustained adoption among farmers have not met similar success. This study moves away from simplistic analyses about constraints in extension methods for IPM. Instead, we take a broader look into technological systems and the trajectory for pest management, which affected the spread and uptake of IPM in the country. Through a review of the wider context in policies and programs, and a survey of farmers from five provinces in Cambodia (N = 400), we examined the connections between options for pest management at the farmer level and conditions in the technological system. Using the Cambodian case study, we show that the technological system predisposes to pesticide use and as such hinders a trajectory of IPM. Systemic conditions, including interrelated agronomic practices, ecological conditions in farming communities, governance mechanisms, structures around the spread of knowledge and the industry around the technological options, have created mutual socio-technical dependencies. Although programs targeted change through knowledge of IPM, much of the systemic conditions sustain the trajectory of pesticide reliance. Hence, promoting an innovation environment that is supportive of IPM requires extension beyond knowledge dissemination, addressing these varied elements of the technological system.

Le chaînon manquant d’un génocide. Autour de L’Image manquante (Rithy Panh, 2013)

Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture (2013) delves into a long-tradition conceit which originated in the Holocaust bibliography, that is: the non-representable. However, unlike the Holocaust, in the Cambodian case the images representing the genocide are even more scarce. Taking into consideration the pictures that have been used over the years to embody the genocide, this article proposes four categories of them according to their enunciation. Later, it interrogates the visual strategies used by the filmmaker in the said documentary. Recurring to an un-realistic imagery based on hand-carved clay figurines placed in a diorama-like setting and to a first-person hypnotic voiceover, Panh introduces an estrangement that paradoxically imbues the narrative with an emotional tone. From such a perspective, the article proceeds to a close analysis of three sequences, focusing on iconography, editing and use of footage. The articulation of all of them constitutes an original search of a visual and narrative lexicon destined both to escape from the cliches and to perform an exorcism from personal traumatic experience.

No Justice Without Narratives: Transition, Justice and the Khmer Rouge Trials

The article addresses the relationship between the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and the supposed constituents of that transitional justice institution. The article sets out to offer a sociological methodology that TJ mechanism could contemplate in the process of enabling victims/witnesses to narrate justice and transition in their own terms and using Cambodia as a case study. It offers a theoretical and methodological approach to be reflected upon by transitional justice scholars and practitioners, which may enable a more victim-centered attitude in practical interactions with atrocity survivors (not a cure-all policy solution). My own research has actively used this methodology to serve this task. This article draws on 70 in-depth oral histories taken from regime survivors, former Khmer Rouge, religious leaders, international and domestic jurists at the ECCC ,witnesses, civil parties, historical and cultural figures from multiple communities in 10 provinces in Cambodia. I have established some basis for situating individual voices into a specifically Cambodian intellectual context. In discussing the Cambodian case from the position of those outside the ECCC (but whom that institution serves) the article engages with the normative assumptions of transitional justice praxis and broader thematic problems such as bridging local and global conceptions of justice.

Government policy and private sector development in post-conflict states: Growing Cambodia’s rice production and export industries

AbstractThis article deals with the rehabilitation of economies in post-conflict states, paying particular attention to the role played by the state in this process. Using the example of Cambodia and its policies on rice production and export, the article shows the prominent role that may be played by the state in prioritised areas of economic development where there has been market failure. In the Cambodian case, the government targeted rice production and export as these had great potential for promoting the major aims of national development policy – economic growth and poverty alleviation. Using a whole-of-government approach and a combination of direct involvement and the creation of an enabling environment, the government appears to have contributed to vastly increased rice production and export.

Policy Misalignments and Development Challenges in the Cambodian Academic Profession: Insights from Public University Lecturers

Worldwide, markets challenge academics to keep their professional competency constantly improving. While in some countries governments, universities and individual scholars synergize their efforts to improve conditions for professional development, in others the stakeholders act in a chaotic and uncommitted manner. This paper examines the efforts of Cambodian policy-makers aimed at making structural alignments of interests, strategies, and resources at governmental and institutional levels in response to sporadic changes in academic labor markets. The qualitative research data shed light on a range of asynchronies generated by underinvestment in academic competence improvement and reliance on random actors that make choices in accordance with political circumstances, rather than professional norms. The Cambodian case stimulates thinking on what might be required to align national and institutional personnel policies and enhance opportunities for continued improvement of academic competence in a resource-deficient higher education system.

The Asian Century, Sustainable Growth and Climate Change: Responsible Futures Matter

Contents: Preface Introduction Moazzem Hossain PART I: FUTURE ISSUES OF ASIA 1. Agriculture, Structural Change and Socially Responsible Development in China and Vietnam Clem Tisdell 2. Population, Poverty and Responsible Social Protection Issues of Asia Moazzem Hossain 3. Resource Constraints and Asia's Growth: Regional Cooperation for Enhancing Energy Security Shanawez Hossain and Tapan Sarker PART II: RESPONSIBLE POLICY MATTERS 4. Taxing for the Future: An Intergenerational Perspective Tapan Sarker 5. Indian Agriculture in the Era of Global Warming Ranajit Chakrabarty and Smwarajit Lahiri Chakravarty 6. China's Changing Public Health Paradox and the New Generation of Health NGOs Lai-Ha Chan and Ronald C. Keith 7. Towards Universal Sanitation: The Cambodian Case Paul Howard 8. Decentralization and Poverty Reduction in Indonesia: The Case of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Yenny Tjoe 9. Migration of Bangladeshi Workers to Malaysia: Emerging Lessons of Economic and Social Costs and Benefits at the Migrant, Migrant Household and Community Levels Munshi Israil Hossain, M. Adil Khan and Patricia Short PART III: REALIZING THE ASIAN CENTURY: THE CHALLENGES 10. Sustainable Resource Development in Asia: Challenges and Opportunities Vigya Sharma and Tapan Sarker 11. Business's Challenge: Relating Corporate Sustainability, Strategy and Leadership Vikram P. Murthy 12. The Asian Century is the Chinese Century and the Century of Turbulence Malcolm McIntosh Index

Predicting responses to conservation interventions through scenarios: A Cambodian case study

In this paper, we demonstrate how predictive methods can be used to investigate the effectiveness of conservation interventions prior to their implementation and ensure that limited resources are invested in those interventions that will achieve the strongest outcomes for conservation. Too often, operational, financial and logistical constraints lead to the design of interventions based on past experience and expert opinion, without an assessment of the probable outcomes of alternative approaches. Here, we employ a simple method that can be used by conservation managers to evaluate a range of credible alternatives and select the intervention predicted to have the greatest impact. We apply scenario-based interviews to investigate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing household forest clearance at a REDD+ site in Cambodia. In this context, we show that collective performance payments, structured either as payments to individual households or to village development funds, have the greatest potential to reduce household clearance. In comparison, greater enforcement effort and individually contracted performance payments – options that might otherwise have been considered credible choices – are predicted to perform poorly, with only negligible reductions in forest clearance.

Ordinary theatre and extraordinary law at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

This paper examines Cambodia’s current international criminal tribunal (ICT)—the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)—using a critical geopolitics of justice approach. This approach holds that ICTs necessarily work within an existing geopolitical terrain and that, as public events, they also exceed their formal mandates. With reference to the Cambodian case these two insights are expanded to consider questions of preceding justice and memorial initiatives and the performativity of law and sovereignty. I specifically explore the charge of ‘show trial’ that circulates in international English-language mass media discourse on the ECCC. I argue that this charge unthinkingly revives the geopolitical ostracism of Cambodia that occurred in the period following Khmer Rouge rule and misrecognises the productively theatrical nature of the legal event. There is a critical need to interrogate the normative claim that international criminal justice be ‘not only done, but seen to be done’. This paper calls instead for a recognition of international(ised) legal events in terms of their productive theatricality and performative force.

État prébendier et politiques industrielles au Cambodge

Applied to Cambodia, the notion of the prebendary state refers to the capacity of political elites to organize the internal market on the basis of concessions reserved for those in their immediate circle and contracts signed with foreign investors entailing the exchange of financial gifts for legal deregulation and the privatization of violence. In the domain of industrial policy, this authoritarian form of patrimonial domination is embodied by special economic zones. These zones underscore the agreements reached between public actors and private investors, the Tayloristic organization of labor within firms and the absence of professional relations. As a result, these zones are very weakly linked to regional development flows in the Mekong Basin, suggesting that the Cambodian case be seen as a degraded instance of &#8220;developmentalism&#8221;. &#9632;

Fundamental Rights and Migration of Judicial Models in the Conditionality of Investment Treaties and Transnational Public Policies. The Cambodian Case

Abstract: Justice Reform in developing countries is one of the most important priorities of international economic organizations. Reform is frequently pursued by setting up new institutions beyond national authorities, in order to prevent national government interference with their functions. The theories linking economic growth and rule of law models offer legitimization to the legal transplants required to meet international standards. The Cambodian case shows that this connection is often unbalanced and the regulation of the new models seeks productive increase rather than better justice in the field of fundamental rights. Resumo : A reforma da justica nos paises em desenvolvimento e uma das prioridades mais importantes das organizacoes economicas internacionais. Esse objetivo e frequentemente seguido pela criacao de novas instituicoes para alem das autoridades nacionais , a fim de impedir que estas interfiram em suas funcoes. Teorias que ligam o crescimento economico e a normatividade de modelos juridicos oferecem legitimacao as migracoes legais necessarias para cumprir os padroes internacionais. O caso do Camboja , no entanto, destaca que esta ligacao e muitas vezes desequilibrada e a regulamentacao do novo modelo busca mais um incremento produtivo do que melhorar a Justica no dominio dos Direitos Fundamentais .

Can Local Institutions Help Sustain Livelihoods in an Era of Fish Declines and Persistent Environmental Change? A Cambodian Case Study

This paper sets out to explore fishers’ perceptions of environmental change in coastal Cambodia and to then examine the role of local institutions in working with villagers to adapt to such challenges. The analysis shows that: (1) fishers observe species decline, irregular tides and a change in weather patterns; and (2) local institutions have been working to address some of these issues through a series of resource management and livelihood projects for over a decade. We note that local institutions are well placed to deal with certain types of environmental change projects, such as protecting small patches of mangrove trees or creating fish sanctuaries, along with less controversial, tourism-related projects. It is impossible, however, for local institutions to tackle bigger issues, such as over-fishing or large-scale resource extraction. Fishing villages are dealing with multiple challenges (environmental change and beyond), which may make fishing a less viable option for coastal villagers in the medium to long term. As such, key policy responses include acknowledging and building upon the work of local institutions, enhanced support for patrolling at national and provincial levels, developing response scenarios for coastal environmental change, involving local institutions in scientific monitoring and piloting projects that consider fishing and non-fishing livelihoods.

Land rights as an engine of growth? An analysis of Cambodian land grabs in the context of development theory

Forceful evictions have become a serious problem in Cambodia with an increasing number of families being deprived of their land, homes and livelihoods without compensation. This article analyses Cambodian land rights in the context of economic development theory. It assesses whether increasing economic inequalities, stemming from forceful evictions, can be categorized as an impediment to Cambodian economic growth. The Cambodian case illustrates that a lack of good governance due to corruption leads to the unequal distribution of land which, in turn, causes inequitable economic development. The paper concludes that Cambodia is trapped in a vicious cycle of inequality, which is upheld by elites who benefit from evictions and land concessions while evictees become trapped in poverty. Given that the population is growing angrier, the article warns of potential for a violent revolution that could have disastrous consequences for the Cambodian kingdom, a country that recently emerged from years of civil conflicts and is still in the process of rebuilding its social fabric.

Friction, Good Governance and the Poor: Cases from Cambodia

Friction is a zone of contingency where creative responses of local and international agents produce unexpected effects. Viewing ‘good governance’ in this light allows better appreciation of the blurring of boundaries between international prescriptions and local cultures, often regarded as antithetical in the Cambodian case. In fact, actors in Cambodia mobilize both a newly invigorated domestic cultural discourse and international ways of working to pursue struggles over development in the post-conflict context. However, elite actors are much better placed to do this successfully than are the poor.

A critical reflection of teacher professionalism in Cambodia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the development of teacher professionalism in Cambodia and the issues and challenges in this area.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses Hargreaves’ four ages of teacher professionalism and professional learning to frame the discussion of the development of teacher professionalism in Cambodia.FindingsThis paper argues that the Cambodian government aims to develop the teachers to become autonomous professionals in terms of curriculum and pedagogical improvements. However the reality is that the Cambodian teachers manifest characteristics of both the pre‐professionals and autonomous professionals. This paper also examines the issues and challenges faced in the development of teacher professionalism, which are entwined in the complexities of educational reform, societal and economic development. By identifying some structural, economic and socio‐cultural challenges faced by Cambodian teachers, this paper suggests that Cambodian teachers need greater teacher collaboration within a culture of trust and accountability to become collegial professionals.Originality/valueThe Cambodian case study adds to the literature on the development of teacher professionalism in Cambodia and illustrates the potential of comparative and international research on teacher professionalism between Anglophonic and non‐Anglophonic cultures.