ABSTRACT
The United Nations' involvement in seeking a resolution to Cambodia's long-standing political conflict represents an unparalleled international diplomatic effort. Massive in size, comprehensive in scope and precise in its mandate, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) set a new standard for peacekeeping operations undertaken by the international community. In the summer of 1989, the Paris Conference on Cambodia was convened with the contending several factions and nineteen countries in attendance. French colonization of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, in the 19th Century sowed the seeds of nationalism that began to emerge after the First World War, but which blossomed in the period immediately following the Second World War. The Khmer Rouge had continued to fight the Vietnamese and the Cambodia government forces of the State of Cambodia in an on-again-off-again loose coalition with the non-communist resistance factions. In Cambodia, the absence of clear and unambiguous chains of command internal to UNTAC.
