Cambodia’s recent history is inseparable from the horror of the Khmer Rouge era of the late 1970s, when an estimated one and a half to two million people died under a radical regime that emptied the cities and pursued a brutal program of social engineering. The years that followed brought continued civil conflict, foreign occupation, and instability until the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements finally set the country on a path toward elections and reconstruction under United Nations supervision.
Since then, Cambodia has achieved a degree of stability and steady economic growth, rejoining regional and international institutions and eventually establishing a tribunal to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity. Political power, however, has remained concentrated for decades under the country’s long-serving prime minister and his party, with opposition movements repeatedly weakened through legal pressure and restrictions on independent media.
Beneath the surface of economic progress, Cambodia continues to grapple with deep-rooted poverty, land disputes, and governance challenges, alongside concerns about corruption and the erosion of political pluralism even as the country markets itself internationally as a stable investment destination.