Showing 51 - 60 of 81
Asean, Southeast Asia are growing apart
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/06/2016
» Nearly five decades after the formation of its regional organisation known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Southeast Asia as a region faces issues and challenges that hark back to its geographic and conceptual coalescence in the post-colonial period after World War II. So rich in diversity and thus so difficult to cultivate and harness a common identity and organisational coherence and thrust, Southeast Asia is an unnatural region.
The opportunity costs of Thailand's descent
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/02/2016
» The Cobra Gold joint military exercise this week and the inaugural Asean-US summit in southern California next week against the backdrop of the recently inked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade area reflect the standings and priorities of Bangkok and Washington. Thailand's international engagements are increasingly on the back foot, unable to plough ahead and prone to expediency because of its political troubles at home. The US, on the hand, now has a coherent and mutually reinforcing geopolitical and geo-economic agenda for the Asia-Pacific but it may not be sustained because of impending leadership change.
China conundrum and global implications
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 29/01/2016
» It was not long ago when we were grappling with China's rise and what it meant for the world. Many were concerned about the disruptive challenges China's global ascendancy would bring, and some went so far as to foresee a China-dominated century. The narrative has now shifted. China has reached a growth plateau at home, surrounded by allies and partners of the United States in its geopolitical neighbourhood. China at a standstill or on a downward climb now looks even more worrisome than when it was rising.
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.
Thai-US treaty alliance needs realigning
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/01/2016
» That the United States' role in Asia's fluid and dynamic geopolitical canvas is considered indispensable is not a matter of dispute. Governments and states in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia have all been in favour of a continued American engagement that dates back more than a century, and which intensified after World War II and throughout the Cold War. Even China, the pre-eminent giant with superpower status, has not opposed US engagement in Asia, thanks in part to unprecedented mutual economic interdependence between Washington and Beijing.
NE Asia summit shows SE Asia weaknesses
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/11/2015
» Although it papered over differences, the recent resumption of a summit meeting among China, Japan and South Korea has cooled bilateral tensions in Northeast Asia with longer-term implications for Southeast Asia.
Myanmar reflects Asean domestic dilemmas
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 06/11/2015
» Myanmar's momentous elections on Sunday have a familiar ring to them. Now, just like 25 years ago, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), spearheaded by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is poised to thump the military-led Union Solidarity and Development Part (USDP) by a resounding margin.
Divisiveness of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/10/2015
» Although the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has yet to be publicly released, the recently announced trade pact among 12 nations in the Asia-Pacific has already caused shockwaves around the world.
A recalibration between Thailand and the outside world
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/10/2015
» Thailand's relations with the outside world were naturally complicated by its latest military coup in May 2014.
Thai luck runs out with attack on shrine
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/09/2015
» For a country that has done so well for so long in navigating the treacherous waters of international life, Thailand's luck may have run out with the bomb attack on the Erawan shrine in central Bangkok on Aug 17.