Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Domestic drivers of bilateral conflict
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/12/2025
» The latest flare-up and intensification of the armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia should be understood less as a new crisis and more as a resumption of a bilateral clash that erupted in late July.
Defusing Thai-Cambodian border row
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/06/2025
» At issue in the ongoing border standoff between the Thai and Cambodian armed forces is timing and circumstance. In less than two weeks, a seemingly minor border skirmish intensified into a full-scale military confrontation. What is being overlooked in the thick of mutual antagonism and ultranationalism on both sides is when and how the current round of confrontation transpired. Getting its origins right is crucial to finding ways and means for conflict resolution.
Myanmar as interim 'non-state' state
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 01/03/2024
» Myanmar, also known as Burma, has become a de facto state that is dominated by non-state entities. Contrary to facile claims, Myanmar is not a failed state like some that beset parts of Africa and the Middle East. The ethnically diverse country of 55 million still functions despite widespread violence in an ongoing civil war. Unless and until Myanmar is understood and re-conceptualised as an interim state comprising non-state entities, it will be difficult to move forward to remake and reconstitute a new country after the civil war and the passing of the military junta that seized power on Feb 1, 2021, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Myanmar revolts against dictatorship
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/02/2024
» When Myanmar's military coup took place three years ago, few thought it would turn out this way. Never has a military in Southeast Asia staged a successful coup and then failed to consolidate power afterwards. Yet this is precisely what's happening in Myanmar. A fierce and determined coalition of resistance forces is in the process of prevailing over Myanmar's battle-hardened army.
What next with China as a superpower?
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/10/2019
» The spectacular celebrations to mark the People's Republic of China's 70th anniversary of its founding were the culmination of a sweeping ideological struggle over the past century between two competing systems of socio-economic and political organisation. Under the stewardship of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1921, China has now arrived as a 21st century superpower with an unprecedented hybrid of totalitarian control and a capitalist market economy, the successor state to the old Soviet Union whose demise nearly 30 years ago was attributable to its rigid collectivism over market capitalism.
The cabinet's composition and direction
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/07/2019
» With Thailand's new post-election cabinet members poised to to start work after being sworn in, it is instructive to look at how they have been assembled based on patron-client ties and vested interests. Because it contains unsavoury individuals with shady pasts, this cabinet is unlikely to last long but the political longevity of its leader, former junta chairman and still Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, may endure longer than many would expect from such a fragile, fractious coalition government.