David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and Southeast Asia columnist at the Diplomat. He writes the Europe Meets Southeast Asia newsletter.
The Cambodian government brought Prak Sokhonn, the former foreign minister, back in from the cold in November. Out went Sok Chenda Sophea, a trusted but taciturn bureaucrat appointed chief diplomat last year to focus the foreign ministry's attention solely on investment and trade. Under Sok Chenda, who previously headed the country's investment council, the ministry was left to tap foreign governments for money. More contentious areas of diplomacy -- like the ongoing Myanmar crisis or Cambodia's territorial disputes with Thailand and Vietnam -- that might have impaired economic engagement were left to the likes of Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, Hun Sen, the former prime minister who still dictates most things.
