• OPINION

  A Thai view on the Hamas-Israel war

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/10/2023

  » The Palestinians' longstanding and legitimate grievances have been irrevocably subverted by Hamas' brazen attack against Israel on Oct 7. Unlike previous rounds of conflicts and clashes between Israel and the Palestinians on the one hand and neighbouring Arab states on the other, Thailand has become a direct casualty like never before, as 30 Thai workers have been killed to date, with at least 16 injured and 17 taken hostage. As a militant political movement motivated by Islamic fundamentalism using methods of terrorism to achieve its objectives, Hamas has made a bad name for the Palestinian cause, eliciting condemnation and opposition all the way over here in Thailand.

• OPINION

  Biden's pivot to free, open Indo-Pacific

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/09/2021

  » If former United States President Barack Obama is known for his "pivot to Asia" geostrategy and President Donald Trump for the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, there is now a geostrategic synthesis under President Joe Biden. It can be aptly called the US "pivot to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific".

• OPINION

  Concentric Mideast wars and prospects

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/01/2020

  » Nothing captures attention in an age of media saturation like the talk of war. The recent decision by US President Donald Trump to assassinate a top Iranian official, Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani, has conjured up the spectre of a wider conflict encompassing not just the Middle East but the broader world, as Iran's top leaders deemed it "an act of war" and vowed "severe revenge". Although Iran's military and its proxy militias and client states in the Middle East and elsewhere are poised to exact retribution for their loss, we are unlikely to see a world war in the immediate aftermath of this killing.

• OPINION

  Obama's Asian pivot faces uncertain fate

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/12/2016

  » As President-elect Donald Trump continues to stir up a hornet's nest in Washington and elsewhere in America, the outgoing and lame-duck presidency of Barack Obama looks spent, its foreign policy agenda at risk of reversal and dismantlement. This is a pity because Mr Obama had his heart in the right places. He tried to make the world a better place but ultimately fell short.

• OPINION

  Post-Obama America's 'rebalance' to Asia

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/06/2016

  » As the United States' presidential election kicks into higher gear with the upcoming nominations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the Democratic and Republican party candidates vying for top office, Asian countries, and Asean in particular, are concerned about what will happen to outgoing President Barack Obama's "rebalance" (also known as the "pivot") strategy to Asia. The "rebalance" is likely to be a lasting legacy of President Obama's foreign policy accomplishments. It has provided Asian countries from Myanmar and Vietnam to the Philippines with a counterbalance to China's increasing regional footprints. But the future of the rebalance hangs in the balance.

• OPINION

  Turkish, Thai democracy and dictatorship

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/07/2016

  » For coup-prone Thailand, Turkey's failed putsch has generated huge but ephemeral interest. When elements of the Turkish military rolled out the tanks and tried to seize power in Ankara and Istanbul, spectators in Bangkok naturally coalesced into two broad camps along the Thai divide, either for or against the putsch.

• OPINION

  Between authoritarianism and democracy

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 22/01/2016

  » So far in the 21st century, political fortunes in Southeast Asian states have been mixed. As the world's only region that harbours all political regimes from absolutism in Brunei and authoritarianism in Thailand to thriving democracy in Indonesia and communist one-party rule in Vietnam, Southeast Asia's political future will likely be sandwiched between a rule by the few and government by the majority. The determinant of future regime pathways in this region may well be the performance of China on one hand and India and Japan on the other, the largest and most consequent major powers in the neighbourhood.

• OPINION

  Responding to guerrilla-style global terror

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/11/2015

  » The coordinated terrorist attacks against multiple targets in Paris last Friday were neither the first nor the last we will see from militant Muslims espousing extremist strands of Islam.

• OPINION

  Western folly in Middle East quagmire

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/11/2015

  » Democracy is not for every region. Nowhere is this more evident than in the modern Middle East. As individual regimes and the entire region disintegrate and revert back to their familiar past of tribal wars and internecine strife that are answerable only to force and strength, not international rules and norms, it is instructive to look back at the origins of the current phase of violence and mayhem.

• OPINION

  Interventions must have political goals

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/06/2014

  » Military interventions all over the world are invariably easier to go into than to get out of. In many large-scale military operations, entry points quickly warp into elusive and murky exit plans as the fog of war sets in. Only with clear and realistic political objectives can military interventions succeed in their stated aims. Many cases abroad are instructive for Thailand’s experience at home.

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