Showing 1 - 4 of 4
Domestic drivers of superpower rivalry
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/07/2020
» The coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally global but its impact is mainly local because of the international system of state sovereignty, borders and divergent national interests. What is needed to cope with, contain and overcome the pandemic is more international cooperation and coordination. But we are seeing less international efforts to fight the virus together and more self-help where every nation fends for itself. The upshot from this fractured and fragmented international system during Covid-19 is the primacy of domestic determinants of international outcomes. Nowhere is this reality clearer than the competition and confrontation between the United States and China.
Elections, corruption and Thai democracy
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/02/2018
» People at home and abroad are calling for elections in Thailand on the premise of returning democracy to a country that has been under nearly four years of military government. But elections cannot bring genuine democracy if blatant corruption rears its head in open daylight with utter impunity. No doubt elections will be needed to get rid of the current set of military rulers but democracy in Thailand requires the strengthening of its democratic institutions that are so shoddy and woeful.
Trump, Southeast Asia and Thailand
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/01/2017
» No newly inaugurated president of the United States in the contemporary era is more controversial nor as derided as Donald Trump. Already, there have been pre-inauguration insinuations and plots among his critics and detractors to see him eventually impeached or at least occupy the White House for only one term. Without much experience in public service, the real-estate tycoon catapulted himself into American political life, and his country's electoral system produced him as the winner in the election last November, even though he lost the popular vote to his opponent by more than 2.8 million votes out of 128.8 million.
Takeaways from the Lee Kuan Yew years
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/03/2015
» In death as in life, Lee Kuan Yew elicits reactions near and far that few global leaders can match. In the wake of his passing, Singapore functions just fine in a business-as-usual fashion, with strong institutions, a system of government and human talent that will sustain the place.