President Trump has cast himself as a global peacemaker. His interventions have calmed some conflicts, while in others his role is less clear.

American demand for tropical wood that is used in motor homes, conservationists say, is accelerating the disappearance of some of the world’s largest forests.

There is no viable alternative to a tropical hardwood that grows in Southeast Asia, according to the American R.V. industry.

A series of border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia escalated into a military conflict in July that killed dozens of people and rattled the region. As negotiations take place, Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times’s Southeast Asia bureau chief, talks to Katrin Bennhold, a senior writer on the International desk, about the context behind the evolving dispute.

The gesture comes after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Thailand, and a trade deal with Washington that blunted a threat of heavy tariffs.

A figurehead leader, he had little real power but did endorse measures that allowed the country’s generals to extend their rule after a 2021 coup.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra of Thailand had already been suspended after a leaked phone call that many say showed her selling out her country.

The military government hopes elections can bring more international legitimacy. But the generals will still rule, and opposition groups are boycotting.

Intense nationalism and disputed history — and maps — stoke the neighbors’ hostilities. Even a surge of international diplomacy has brought little hope of a lasting peace.