Thailand


Indonesia  / Myanmar  / Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Srettha’s First Foreign Policy Mistake: Passing on the ASEAN Summit
Posted On September 11, 2023
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is in crisis and it appears that key foreign leaders, despite the twin challenges of Myanmar and the South China Sea, are passing on this week’s ASEAN Summit and related meetings in Jakarta. First, U.S President Joe Biden decided to skip the gathering of Southeast Asian states for the G-20 Summit hosted by India and a visit to Vietnam, and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be represented by Premier Li Qiang. But for Thailand, a founding member of the 10-member grouping, the absence of new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin represents more than just absenteeism. It is the first foreign policy mistake of his days-old administration.
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Europe  / Myanmar  / Thailand
The Past Holds Clues to Thailand’s Foreign Policy under Pheu Thai
August 1, 2023

Predictions of a foreign policy reset following the upset of Thailand’s long-dominant conservative establishment in the May 2023 election have proved to be premature. The junta-appointed Senate, permitted by the Kingdom’s 2017 Constitution, has stonewalled Pita Limjaroenrat, the Move Forward Party’s candidate for Prime Minister. Pita, a businessman, and leading progressive reformer, had suggested a dramatic foreign policy shift, declaring in June that they would align with previous ASEAN chairs in distancing Thailand from engagement with Myanmar’s junta.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Pita Touches the “Third Rail” of Thai Politics
July 21, 2023

If you touch it, you die. That’s the supposed result for politicians who confront highly contentious issues. Likened to grasping the “third rail,” the one that provides the electricity that powers a train or subway, the result is political suicide—at least that was the metaphor attributed to U.S. House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill when discussing the topic of Social Security in the early 1980s, as any politician attempting to reform the largest social safety net for retired American workers would later cost them their political careers at the ballot box. Pita Limjaroenrat, the prime ministerial candidate of the progressive Move Forward Party, which upset Thailand’s conservative military-backed parties in the May 14 election, also touched on a sensitive national issue: lèse-majesté.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Prayut Has Retired, but His Undemocratic Legacy Will Live On
July 13, 2023

In a span of hours yesterday, two events shook Thailand’s political landscape. First, after more than nine years in power, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha formally announced his retirement from politics and resigned as head of the United Thai Nation Party (UTNP), ending an era that began with a military coup against the democratically-elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. Second, Thailand’s Election Commission (EC) has sought the Constitutional Court’s ruling on whether Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the Move Forward Party (MFP), is qualified to sit in parliament due to his past ownership of shares in the defunct broadcaster iTV. Until that time, the EC has suspended Pita from his MP duties, even though the vote for prime minister will still occur tomorrow (July 13).


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Reinventing Pheu Thai
May 29, 2023

As early as January, in many parts of Thailand, the north in particular, Pheu Thai posters featuring the fresh-faced Paetongtarn Shinawatra were as ubiquitous as rice in the fields. It was, as many had predicted, a sea of red. As soon as Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha dissolved the House of Representatives in March, the consensus was that Pheu Thai and the daughter of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra were the consensus frontrunners. Although Paetongtarn was a political neophyte, the party arguably banked on its glory days and a sense of nostalgia to win the hearts of Thai voters. It did not work as many expected. Pheu Thai had to contend with the emerging Move Forward Party, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, a charismatic Harvard and MIT-educated member of Parliament and businessman.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Thailand, Particularly the Deep South, Needs a Final Reckoning With Thaksin
May 16, 2023

It has been the subject of conversation for years, both celebrated and dreaded by different parts of Thai society. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has claimed for several years that he wants to return to Thailand, a possibility now accentuated by the rise of his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a prime ministerial candidate for the Pheu Thai Party (PTP) in this week’s election. Critics have suggested that his return is unlikely, dismissing his more recent comments as an election year ploy.


Indo-Pacific  / Russia  / Southeast Asia  / Thailand  / Ukraine
What Thailand wants from the APEC meeting
November 3, 2022

The annual gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) will take place in Bangkok on 18 – 19 November, but not without turmoil and somewhat diminished expectations from its host Thailand, who is the chairman of the 21-member bloc this year. Interrupted by global events beyond its control, Thailand will contend with the G-20 Summit taking place just days prior in Bali, Indonesia, and repercussions from Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine, more than 7,000 kilometers away. Despite all of the political drama taking place outside of APEC’s meeting in November, Thailand is still set on making some gains from its leadership post in 2022. But what can it hope to achieve?


China  / Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Thailand’s Troubling History With the Uyghurs
November 2, 2022

Recent reports of Uyghur Muslims, wilting away in Thai detention facilities, bring back memories – and not good ones, as they serve as reminders of Thailand’s past mistakes of kowtowing to China. The ethnic minority, originating from China’s western region of Xinjiang, has been the subject of many reports by human rights organizations, most recently the long-awaited and much-delayed report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), which detailed violations of grave abuses, from torture and forced labor to mass arbitrary detention in internment camps. For years, many of China’s Uyghurs fled the Xinjiang region to escape persecution, with many crossing into mainland Southeast Asia.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
After the Nong Bua Lamphu shooting, a need for grief-sensitive journalism
October 14, 2022

In a horrifying mass shooting at a childcare center in the northeastern Thai province of Nong Bua Lamphu on October 6, at least 38 people, including 22 young children were killed. A former police officer, Panya Kamrab used his personal 9mm handgun as well as several knives in the attack that stunned and frightened the Kingdom. International and national media have descended upon the rural Uthai Sawan community for the purposes of covering the story. Journalists, as well as the Thai public, have raised legitimate questions that should be asked after a tragedy like this: Has rising poverty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a decline in mental health? What can Thailand do about its rising gun violence? According to the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health, there are more than 10 million privately-owned guns circulating in Thailand.


India  / South Asia  / Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Thailand’s relations with India are critical to its interests in the Indo-Pacific
September 28, 2022

When S. Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister visited Thailand in August, he met with then-Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to sign two low-key agreements on healthcare and medical research. It was an important moment marking 75 years of bilateral ties between the two countries. While on the periphery compared to Thailand’s relations with China and the United States, its relationship with India is growing and is becoming essential as the Kingdom extends itself beyond Southeast Asia.The growing ties between India and Thailand are based on pragmatism and mutually-beneficial goals. The relationship focuses especially on security cooperation and trade, as well as a long history of cultural exchanges.