Preah Vihear Province

Preah Vihear Province demonstrates how territorial disputes create path-dependent economic trajectories, with a single contested asset—the 11th-century Hindu temple atop the Dangrek cliffs—dominating provincial identity and development possibilities for seven decades.

The temple's contested ownership traces to French colonial cartography. Built primarily under Suryavarman I and II during the Khmer Empire's zenith (1002-1150), the temple sat on a cliff where natural and administrative boundaries diverge. Thailand occupied it in 1954 following Cambodian independence. The 1962 International Court of Justice ruling for Cambodia established legal sovereignty but left simmering resentment that would repeatedly ignite.

The 2008 UNESCO World Heritage listing transformed the dispute from bilateral irritant to international flashpoint. Thai nationalists seized the registration to attack their own government, triggering border tensions that escalated through skirmishes to a deadly 2011 exchange killing at least 15 people. The ICJ's 2013 ruling reaffirmed Cambodian sovereignty over the promontory, but damaged more than architecture—the conflict's economic consequences included border closures halting trade estimated at $10.45 billion annually by 2024.

The temple embodies development paradox: UNESCO recognition was intended to drive northern Cambodia's tourism economy, extending tourist stays beyond Angkor Wat into less-developed regions. Instead, militarization and uncertainty suppressed the expected economic lift. The temple generates cultural capital without corresponding economic capture.

Since 2013, Preah Vihear has remained relatively calm, though the ownership debate pauses rather than ends. By 2026, the province's trajectory depends on whether sustained peace enables the tourism infrastructure development UNESCO intended, or whether the temple remains an economically frozen asset—culturally valuable but commercially constrained by its contested history.