Obstacles to peace in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The prime obstacle to peace in Southeast Asia is a fundamental conflict of security priorities expressed with reference to the appropriate political identity and external affiliations of Kampuchea. In a strictly Southeast Asian context, that conflict engages above all the competing interests of Thailand and Vietnam which ante- date colonial intervention in Indochina. But it cannot be explained solely with reference to Thai-Vietnamese rivalries past and present. The conflict in, and over, Kampuchea has been both generated and reinforced by an interlocking structure of relationships which extend beyond Southeast Asia, most importantly that between Vietnam and China. Indeed, the wider significance of the protracted conflict arises from the revival and ramifications of Sino-Vietnamese antagonisms. Furthermore, the measure and nature of competing interests engaged from beyond Southeast Asia have compounded the intractable difficulty of arriving at a peace settlement.