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.


India  / Indo-Pacific  / South Asia
What to Expect From India’s G20 Presidency
November 20, 2022

As the clock winds down on Indonesia’s 2022 G20 Presidency, the seventeenth overall, a transition is taking place as India assumes the role for 2023. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has already unveiled the theme for its presidency, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth One Family One Future,” indicative of an environmentally-conscious approach. India’s approach will revolve around several key thematic areas, including sustainable growth, digital infrastructure, climate finance, food security, green energy, and combating transnational crime. Some of these thematic areas will prove consequential in New Delhi’s ability to make a mark at the world stage, but they will also pose unique challenges.


Cambodia  / Indo-Pacific  / Myanmar  / Southeast Asia
Need for ASEAN Reform has Never been Greater
November 4, 2022

ASEAN burst into life in 1967 with the creation of the Bangkok Declaration, which detailed the aims of the organization, to promote economic, social, cultural, and educational cooperation as well as regional peace and stability through an assemblance of justice, the rule of law, and the principles of the UN Charter. In a very real sense, for a region racked by conflict and strife at the time, the creation of ASEAN was a message of unity. However, the message of harmony expressed more than 55 years ago has been replaced by an unhealthy clash of state interests, indecisiveness, and institutional paralysis—particularly in the shadow of a regional crisis.


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.


Cambodia  / Myanmar  / Southeast Asia
Hun Sen Has Botched Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship
October 31, 2022

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s time as the ASEAN chair is running out. In a way, 2022 has been much like the previous year–particularly in the maddening context of Myanmar, where Brunei, the previous chair stumbled to the finish line after largely failed diplomacy after the February 2021 coup. In other ways, Brunei’s shepherding of the ill-fated Five-Point Consensus (FPC) and the creation of the ASEAN Special Envoy wasn’t Cambodia’s fault; Hun Sen inherited the mess. And the Security Council, already negligent on its normative duties, punted to ASEAN as early as March of 2021. Even if Hun Sen relished the international spotlight, Cambodia wasn’t exactly ready to shine. While most ASEAN states were leaning toward condemnation of the coup and essentially blocked Myanmar’s presence at the ASEAN Summit in October 2021, Hun Sen tried to bring the military junta’s leadership back into the ASEAN circle...


Australia  / India  / Indo-Pacific  / South Asia
Revisiting India’s Inclusion in APEC
October 17, 2022

This November, members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will converge on Thailand for its 2022 annual gathering. The 21-member bloc is home to more than 2.9 billion people and represents more than half of global GDP, as the United States, China, and Australia are among its members. Thailand’s theme for this year as chair is “Open. Connect. Balance”, dividing optimistic outcomes into three categories: opening the Asia-Pacific to new opportunities, connecting across all dimensions of trade, and achieving balance in all aspects of APEC partnerships. However, if at least two of these three indicators of progress hope to be achievable, APEC should look once again toward expansion. The last time the bloc added new members was 1998, when Russia, Peru, and Vietnam joined. A moratorium on membership soon after was put into place, which lasted until 2010, but since then, no new members have been accepted.


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.


East Asia  / Japan  / United States
Okinawa and the Osprey: A Human Rights Perspective 
October 10, 2022

This October marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival in Okinawa of the MV-22B Osprey, a unique yet troubled tiltrotor aircraft. Based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the island of Okinawa, the aircraft, which boasts vertical and short takeoff and landing capabilities, was supposed to revolutionize humanitarian assistance, disaster relief capacities, and troop transportation in the region. Normally viewed as part of the larger context of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and the increased Chinese aggression in the East China Sea, the deployment of the Osprey also factors heavily in the broader Okinawan human rights landscape. Two issues are driving local concerns over the Osprey, which were captured by Okinawan civil society submissions to Japan’s 2017 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council.


China  / East Asia  / Indo-Pacific  / United States
Containing China’s Maritime Power: A Question of Capability and Intent
September 28, 2022

The 12-character Chinese aphorism quoted by Deng Xiaoping – “Hide your brightness, bide your time” – is long dead. The late Chinese leader was fond of quoting the famous military strategist Sun Tzu, who advocated keeping one’s strengths and capabilities a secret until the appropriate moment. Deng prioritized boosting national incomes and progressing Chinese economic policy first. In 2003, Zheng Bijian, a senior Chinese official, introduced a new concept in Beijing’s foreign policy: the “peaceful rise” (later modified to “peaceful development.”) Finally, Xi Jinping in 2013 expressed the intent for China to become a great power, in part by establishing its maritime dominance in the East and South China Seas. This has already had profound strategic ramifications and put China on a collision course with other regional powers.