State and Uncivil Society in Thailand at Temple of Preah Vihear Puangthong R. Pawakapan Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013, xiv+125p.; bibliography, index.Preah Vihear: A Guide to Thai-Cambodian Conflict and Its Solutions Charnvit Kasetsiri, Pou Sothirak, and Pavin Chachavalpongpun Bangkok: White Lotus, 2013, xiv+104p.; bibliography, no index.In recent years, instead of being a place for peace, meditation, contemplation, and prayer, ancient Khmer temple of Prasat Preah Vihear (Phra Wihan to Thai) has become an object of political dispute and military clashes between two ASEAN members: Thailand and Cambodia. two short books under review are a welcome addition to growing corpus of literature on temple dispute which arose after controversial decision by UNESCO in July 2008 to inscribe Preah Vihear on its World Heritage list. author of first volume, Puangthong R. Pawakapan, is Associate Professor in International Relations Department of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science and best qualified to write on this subject as she has in past conducted extensive research on Thai-Cambodian relations.1) main purpose of this well-written booklet, however, is not only to provide a comprehensive overview of historical background of conflict, but also to analyze actions, strategy, and objectives of campaign of Thailand's People's Alliance for Democracy's (PAD) to exploit border conflict for its own anti-Thaksin agenda.The PAD, also known as Yellow Shirt movement, is seen in State and Uncivil Society in Thailand as stakeholder mainly responsible for sowing seeds of hatred between Thais and Cambodians and derailing successful economic and political cooperation between two countries between 2000-08. PAD is portrayed as an ultra-nationalist social supported by various civic groups and institutions, mainly in Thai capital Bangkok. In first of four chapters author tries to conceptualize term uncivil as an appropriate characterization of movements such as PAD whose behavior and ideology run contrary to democratic principles. Puangthong argues that the exclusion of certain organisations from definition of society is theoretically untenable because all social movements and organisations, Ku Klux Klan, claim that their actions are right and legitimate (p. 9). It is also a matter of fact that same civil movement might be considered a progressive force when fighting communist regimes or other authoritarian dictatorships and viewed as reactionary when opposing a democratically elected government, even though its confrontational tactics may have been same all along (p. 9). author tries to overcome this contradiction by defining uncivil as a sub-set of civil society. This argument is not fully convincing as electoral democracies with a strong society are by no means immune to nationalism and may be pressured by public opinion in their respective countries to stage wars against neighboring states. As European history in nineteenth and twentieth century amply demonstrates, liberal-civic democracies sometimes seem to be less inclined to preserve peace than certain autocratic regimes which appear to be more determined to keep chauvinistic masses at bay.The chapter entitled The Post-Cold War Regional Integration is based on premise that after end of Cambodian conflict (Third Indochina War) in 1991, it was economic cooperation and exchange that fostered improved relations between Thailand and her Indochinese neighbors, including Cambodia. author persuasively argues that Cambodia became an important market and investment area for Thai economy. cross-border trade between two countries grew impressively between 1992 to 2008, with exports from Thailand exceeding imports from Cambodia by a factor of 10. …