After weeks of artillery fire, air strikes and mass displacement, the ceasefire along the Thailand-Cambodia border has brought a moment of stillness to a conflict that was spiralling dangerously out of control. For nearly three weeks, civilians on both sides lived with uncertainty, uprooted from homes and livelihoods by fighting rooted in a dispute far older than any of them. The pause in hostilities is therefore welcome, but it is also precarious ~ more an intermission than a resolution.

At its core, the agreement reflects exhaustion rather than reconciliation. Both militaries have paid a price: casualties among soldiers, damage to equipment, and reputational costs at home and abroad. Cambodia’s setbacks on the battlefield and Thailand’s concerns about repeated ceasefire violations have hardened attitudes rather than softened them. This explains the unusually guarded language surrounding the truce, with explicit warnings that........

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