How does a small and seemingly peripheral country come to occupy a pivotal place in superpower geopolitics? This question lies at the heart of James A. Tyner's critical study of Cambodia's role in U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. Tyner provides a detailed account of how American policymakers alternately magnified and dismissed Cambodia's importance as they navigated the broader struggle for influence in Southeast Asia.

Tyner begins with the Nixon administration's controversial 1970 incursion into Cambodia, an event emblematic of U.S. Cold War strategy's contradictions. He explores how Cambodia's geographic and ideological positioning rendered it a liminal space—important enough for military intervention but often treated as peripheral in broader geopolitical debates. Using the lens of critical geopolitics, Tyner highlights how U.S. policymakers constructed and rationalized Cambodia's place in their grand strategy.

The book excels in blending theoretical insights with historical detail. Tyner argues that U.S. foreign policy operated on assumptions about spatial hierarchies, where regions were coded as central or peripheral based on shifting priorities. This framework illuminates the tensions and inconsistencies in American strategy, where ideological imperatives often clashed with practical realities.