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Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Tuesday, 24 May 2011
A small state can’t change that fact, he said, so it must have good strategies to deal with such issues, in what he called a “smart state.”
As a small country influenced by superpowers and neighboring countries ideologically, politically, and economically, Cambodia needs to pursue a balance of influence, Phat Kosal, a Cambodian scholar on international relations of the Asia-Pacific, says.
A small state is vulnerable from within and without, he said, as a guest last week on “Hello VOA.” It must also contend with insecurity, an under-diversified economy, over-dependency, high risk of isolation, and openness to external influence, he said.
A small state can’t change that fact, he said, so it must have good strategies to deal with such issues, in what he called a “smart state.”
A smart state is one that has a mixture of strategies that maintain its neutrality and autonomy but prevent it from being a client state of a greater power, he said. It must enmesh with greater powers, but use its strategic position to build special relationships among a number of them, allowing greater flexibility to leverage its own interests.
“A smart state has a diversified economy, increasing freedom of actions and avoiding external coercion,” he said. “It has diplomatic flexibility—deepened good neighborly relations and regional institutions to avoid isolation. And it has a clearly defined national ideology supported by a trusting society. Trust between the government and the governed is a vital source of social capital for a strong buffer against the penetration of external influences.”
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