Welcome to the President's Inbox, a CFR podcast about the foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

I'm Jim Lindsay, the Mary and David Boyes Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is the Thai-Cambodian border conflict.

With me to discuss the recent fighting between Cambodia and Thailand along their disputed border is Joshua Kralancic.

Josh is a senior fellow for Southeast Asia and South Asia at

CFR. He is a prolific author, having written six books, the latest of which is Beijing's

global media offensive, China's uneven campaign to influence Asia and the world.

Josh has also written several pieces on the fighting between Cambodia and Thailand for

CFR.org, including Thailand and Cambodia's ceasefire, will it stop war when elites want conflict?

Josh, thanks for coming back on the president's inbox.

Thanks for having me again.

Josh, as the title of your most recent piece indicates, we currently have a ceasefire

between Cambodia and Thailand.

Obviously, things could change by the time this episode airs.

Where I'd like to begin is with what the countries are, in theory, fighting over.

Their clash is regularly described as one rooted in a dispute over where France drew the borders between the two countries when it was the colonial power in Indochina ruling over Cambodia.

Can you help me understand the specifics of the border disagreement?

Well, this is a border dispute in general that has lasted over 100 years now.

I take it to something to do with a map that was written in 1907?

Yeah, some people say 1908.

But at that time, France was the colonial power, so they were in control of Cambodia.

Thailand was never a colony, which is like the second thing any Thai person will tell you,

...