In the Shadows of Utopia: The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Nightmare28 Jul 2025

S3: Interview: Explaining The 2025 Thai Cambodian Border Crisis with Sebastian Strangio

In this episode, I talk with journalist and author Sebastian Strangio about the border tensions between Cambodia and Thailand that have escalated in July 2025. Sebastian is the Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat and one of the region’s leading journalists. He’s a former reporter at the Phnom Penh Post, and the author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia (re-released as Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond) and In the Dragon’s Shadow, a study of China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia.

We start with the political figure who has shaped Cambodia for decades, Hun Sen, and trace how his rise from Khmer Rouge defector to Prime Minister led to the creation of a powerful political dynasty. We then look at the handover of power to his son, Hun Manet, and what that has meant for Cambodian politics in the last two years.

From there, we shift focus to Thailand and explore the structure of Thai politics today. Who holds power? How have coups and party shifts shaped its modern system? And how does that compare to Cambodia’s more centralized model? This helps us understand one of the key triggers of the current crisis: a leaked phone call between Hun Sen and former Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

We then move into the border dispute itself. We look at the long history of territorial claims, colonial-era maps, and temple flashpoints like Preah Vihear and Ta Moan. And we ask how this latest confrontation fits into broader patterns of nationalism, political theatre, and regional rivalry. Finally, we explore what role public opinion and media narratives are playing on both sides of the border.

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Episoder(55)

S3 Ep10: Interview: The Man Who Stole the Gods | Douglas Latchford & Cambodia’s Looted Khmer Art with Matthew Campbell

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S3 Ep9: 1973 Part One: The Return of the King

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S3 Ep8: Terrorism, Rock and Roll and the Battle of Angkor Wat

At the beginning of 1972, Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces fought each other in the temple complex at Angkor. In Phnom Penh, a city swollen with refugees and rocked by bombings, the radios played Sin...

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S3 Ep7: How to Get Out of a War in Indochina: Nixon, Mao and the Paris Peace Accords

In February 1972 Richard Nixon flew to Beijing to shake Mao's hand. In May he went to Moscow. In between, North Vietnam launched the largest conventional offensive of the war and American bombers retu...

16 Feb 2h

S3: Interview: Maoism, the Three Ghosts, and the Khmer Rouge with Matt Galway

In this extended interview, I’m joined by historian Matt Galway, author of Global Maoism, to unpack the intellectual, ideological, and historical foundations of Maoism and Cambodian communism.We begin...

19 Jan 1h 31min

S3 Ep6: 1972 - Life (and Death) in the Liberated Zones. Regrets for the Khmer Soul and M-13

In 1972 a Phnom Penh schools inspector named Ith Sarin spent nine months inside Khmer Rouge territory and came back to write about it. Around the same time a French scholar named Francois Bizot spent ...

4 Jan 1h 38min

S3: Interview: The Super Great Leap Forward and the Khmer Rouge Prison System with Henri Locard

This episode is a follow-up to the two-hour discussion I had with historian Henri Locard. The video of that full conversation is available for free on Patreon right here (or just go to https://www.pat...

22 Okt 20251h 8min

S3: Interview: Who Killed Haing Ngor? With Patricia Nunan

You've seen The Killing Fields, you probably know that Haing Ngor, who played Dith Pran in the film won an oscar. You might also know that he was murdered in Los Angeles. But the version of that story...

17 Okt 202534min