PICC

“The wheel of history is inexorably turning: he who cannot keep pace with it shall be crushed. ” ~Khmer Rouge

The year is 1989. Two decades of war have hollowed Cambodia out — first as collateral to a conflict it never chose, then as a laboratory for an ideology that mistook erasure for renewal. Nearly two million lives were extinguished under the Khmer Rouge's pursuit of Year Zero, and though Vietnam's 1979 invasion ended the killing, it did not end the war. It merely changed its shape.

Now, as the Cold War loosens its grip and Vietnamese troops withdraw, the international community assembles in Paris for one last attempt at resolution. The PICC brings together the four Cambodian factions, the P5, ASEAN, and the wider world — all mandated to forge a comprehensive political settlement. But peace is never simple when the perpetrators of genocide still sit at the table, when great powers pursue their own interests beneath the language of diplomacy, and when a nation's fate rests on whether its enemies can agree.

Will delegates rise to the moment, or will Cambodia be condemned to further discord?