Conflict undermines cooperation

The longstanding border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand has again escalated to actual conflict.

- David Jay Green

Dozens of people have been killed, more have been injured, and more than 170,000 people have had to flee their homes. Cross-border trade and tourism are on hold. As I write this piece, a fragile ceasefire is still in place, but we need more than this; we need an end to hostilities between the two countries.

Let me be clear, there is no treasure chest to be won here. The land in dispute has little intrinsic value. The most sensitive issue is the ownership of relatively small pieces of land that contain the ruins of two Hindu temples. I am sure I am not the only person to wonder what the priests who served the temples would think of their ruins being the centrepiece of armed conflict.

The broader issue is that, in today's world, we increasingly face problems that can only be solved through collective action. This was not so true even a few decades ago. Then, South Korea, Taiwan, or Singapore could, with the right mix of policies, invite investors to build manufacturing or assembly centres that would produce consumer goods for Western markets, paying good wages. Factory Asia required considerable work on the part of the governments, but not necessarily the cooperation of their neighbours.