2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The Preah Vihear Conflict: Competing Concepts on Sovereign Territory between Siam and France
| Project/Area Number |
18K00993
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
C Pavin 京都大学, 東南アジア地域研究研究所, 准教授 (40646098)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Spatial knowledge / Traditional knowledge / Colonial politics / Border dispute / Border demarcation / Concept of sovereignty / Siamese kingdom / Preah Vihear Temple |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This year, the research continued to concentrate on an in-depth study of the diplomatic negotiations between the Siamese and the French. The objective was to discuss perceptions of Siam and France on the definition of sovereign territory. It wanted to tackle the answers under what circumstance that allowed Siam to undergo drastic transition from a kingdom ruling over unlimited frontiers to become a kingdom located in a map. I had a chance to conduct research in Paris, London and Washignton DC, visiting the archives in these cities. I was able to examine the role of certain figures, namely George Padoux (Consul-General in Bangkok in 1905), Colonel Fernand Bernard (Head of the Boundary Commission), Victor Collin de Plancy (French Minister to Siam), Prince Devawongse (Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Siam). I found these documents mainly in Paris and Washington DC. Their worldviews about traditional and modern states and power politics were crucial to the understanding of the outcome of the treaty and the consequence on mapping the Preah Vihear.
To fulfill this task, I organised a workshop at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, (Sciences Po) on 2 December 2019, with a group of scholars to discuss the content of the treaty, the international environment around the time of the conclusion of the treaty and the role played out by those individuals mentioned above. A representative from the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), which signed a MOU with my center at Kyoto University, also participated in the workshop.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I am in the process of writing up preliminary findings on the Thai-Cambodian case, information and materials which I gathered during my field trips in France, USA and UK. The information gained last year in France helped solidify my argument on the different concepts of sovereignty between Siam and Cambodia. Especially in studying the ideas of French policymakers made me realise the different attitude between the coloniser and the colonised. This is my ongoing work. I hope that the fieldwork which I will conduct this year (2020/2021) will complete my study on this topic, the result of which will see a critical article to be published in an international peer-reviewed journal, hopefully to be released in 2021 or 2022.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
For the fiscal year of 2019/2020, I plan to organise a workshop at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University and to invite scholars from some universities and institutes from France, the United States and Cambodia to discuss on the theme of territorial disputes. Also in December 2020, I plan to visit Cambodia's Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) where I will help hold another workshop. As a chef editor of Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, I will work with Cambodian scholars to produce written works on the conflict over the Preah Vihear Temple, tentatively to have them published in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia too.
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