Dr. Vannarith Chheang
12 February 2018
Cambodia’s worldview has been shaped by both domestic political dynamics as well as external environment. How to navigate through increasingly complex and uncertain geopolitical changes, especially in the Asia Pacific region has occupied Cambodia’s foreign policy design. Cambodia has been a contesting ground for major powers from near and far. The talk focuses on three questions: what are the key determinants of Cambodia’s foreign policy and worldview? What are the core national interests of Cambodia? As a smaller state, how does Cambodia adapt and adjust to great power politics, especially in the Trump-Xi era?
About the Speaker:Dr. Vannarith Chheang is a Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies (CISS), Advisor to Civil Society Alliance Forum (CSAF), Senior Fellow and Board Member of the Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), and Associate Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. He was an Executive Director of CICP and a lecturer at the University of Leeds, while spending short-term visiting fellowship at various think tanks and research institutes, including ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) in Beijing, IDE-JETRO in China, and East West Center in Washington. He earned his PhD in Asia Pacific Studies from the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, MA in International Relations from the International University of Japan, and BA in International Relations from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. He was honored Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2013.