My senior thesis examines Cambodia's recent political-economic history, and this has contributed to its development (or lack thereof). Cambodia has been a pawn in the chess game of international diplomacy, between US interests during and after the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union, China, and its immediate neighbors, Vietnam and Thailand. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge gained power, and imposed its rural-based genocidal development model on its people, obliterating its national capital and its infrastructure. After the Khmer Rouge overthrown by the Vietnamese, Cambodia was isolated by the US and China. Beginning in 1992, this isolation was relaxed and a great deal of foreign assistance from the UN and other international organizations was given to Cambodia rebuild the country. However, due to deep-seated corruption, development results are underwhelming. In a state devoid of public services and infrastructure, most of this international aid does not reach the Cambodian people. However, hundreds of NGO's have entered Cambodia to attempt to rescue the Cambodians from the state and its lack of services. In particular, Siem Reap, "the NGO capital of the world," has many NGO's and volunteers arriving with foreign dollars and good intentions. My thesis looks critically at the practice of NGO development through a case study of Union College's Minerva Fellowship Program, which sends two Union graduates to work with Global Child school in Siem Reap each year. Through in-depth interviews with long-term volunteers and administrators, I survey the motivations, intricacies, impacts and paradoxes of doing development in a Third World country. I discuss the struggles within Global Child, as well as the competitive theories of development between Cambodian state control and NGO's working in Cambodia.