| Native Name: | Central Khmer: សុខ ទូច |
| Children: | 3 |
| Alma Mater: | Voronezh State University |
| Birth Place: | Srey Santhor District, Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia |
| Education: | Royal University of Phnom Penh |
| Occupation: | Historian, scientist |
| Nationality: | Cambodian |
Sok Touch (km|សុខ ទូច) is a Cambodian intellectual and current president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia and as such is considered "the government’s top academic".[1]
Sok Touch was born in Takoy Village, Prek Dambok Commune, Srey Santhor District, Kampong Cham Province.
In 1989, before the fall of the Soviet Union, Sok Touch was sent to Voronezh State University where he obtained first his Bachelor of Science in Political Science in 1995, then his Master of Political Science in 1996 before coming out from the university in 1999 with a Doctorate in Political History with a dissertation focusing on the United Nations' role in Cambodia's conflicts.[2]
In 2001, Sok Touch was hired as an administrative officer of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Royal Academy of Cambodia and was the Director of the Communicable Disease Control Department in Phnom Penh,[3] before in 2003 becoming the Director of History and Political Science of this Institute. From 2005 to 2015, he was Vice President (Deputy Director General) of the Institute of International Relations of Cambodia of the Royal Academy of Cambodia while he also defended conservative cultural values as Chairman of the Political Science Commission of the National Council for the Khmer Language from 2011 to 2015, of which he is still a member.
Sok Touch began being more involved in Cambodian politics in 2012 when he became advisor to the Office of the Council of Ministers. In 2015, he was promoted as President of the Institute of International Relations of Cambodia of the Royal Academy of Cambodia and had a rank equivalent as Secretary of State in 2016 when he was appointed Vice President of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.
In October 2015, a man was accused of posting a Facebook death threat against Cambodian researcher Sok Touch in which he showed of a pistol and bullets captioned “they [are] for killing the PhD guy who changes Cambodia’s history; the PhD who sold himself to Vietnam”;[4] the man was shown no leniency in court as he was sentenced to a fine and six month in jail.[5]
After being appointed as a member of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, he was named President of this Academy in 2017 with rank equivalent to Minister in replacement of Lok Chumteav Clot Thida. Since reaching that position, Sok Touch has presented himself as a reformist and required all the members of the academy to raise their standards and become more involved in research works and scientific publications.[6] His reformist views extend to the Khmer sangha arguing that more disciplinary measures should be taken against the monks' unsuitable actions.[7]
In 2018, while human rights advocate lamented the dissolution by the Supreme Court of Cambodia of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, Sok Touch branded this dissolution as the ‘strengthening of democracy’, as he considered, with others, that the divisive attitude and speech of Sam Rainsy created division in the Khmer nation.[8]
In 2021, at the behest of the government, Sok Touch studied and investigated the challenges facing the Tonle Sap Lake, and pleaded to restore endangered species of fish threatened by heavy fishing in the protected areas.[9]
Sok Touch has asked for an imminent reform of higher public offices in order to resorbate the inflation of generals in Cambodia. Touch also urged a review of obese and unfit senior officers of the National Police and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, a suggestion which was previously mentioned by Interior Minister Sar Kheng.[10]
See main article: Cambodia–Vietnam border and Cambodian–Thai border dispute. In what is a very delicate topic of Cambodian politics, Sok Touch has been entrusted with the mission to establish GPS precision border maps of Cambodia since 2016.[11] While he has been criticized for rejecting the frivolous claim to Khmer sovereignty over Koh Tral, nowadays known as Phu Quoc in Vietnamese, which has been under the control of Vietnam since 1933 and confirmed in 1953, he has defended the territorial of sovereignty of Cambodia while insisting on the necessity of peaceful diplomatic relationships, in line with the Win-Win policy promoted by Hun Sen:[12]
While Cambodians tend to respect the traditions of Khmer New Year, Sok Touch has been vociferous about his condemnation of water battles in the city of Siem Reap and around the archeological site of Angkor Wat, games which he considers disrespectful of the sacred character of the city.