On the periphery of China and India and at the nexus of major world trade routes, Southeast Asian states have always had to adapt to the movements of stronger regional and global powers. None are more abjectly dependent on the fortunes of geopolitical change than the oft-forgotten western province of what was once colonial French Indochina — Cambodia. The country has long been wracked by internal conflict and jostled by competition among its more powerful neighbors: Thailand, Vietnam and China. Now the regional order is being challenged once again, because of two main factors: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is integrating and its economies are industrializing . At the same time, China is emerging as a potential regional hegemon , shaking up the power balance in the South China Sea and making economic and infrastructure connections in its near abroad. Southeast Asian governments are responding in different ways.