Showing 1 - 10 of 39
Government stability tests performance
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/04/2026
» Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has gone from strength to strength, leveraging a stopgap minority government late last year into solid majority rule after the Feb 8 election.
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.
Thailand hit by a confluence of crises
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/12/2025
» Thailand is currently facing multiple crises of unprecedented proportions in the highest corridors of power that will pose adversity for the economy and political stability next year and beyond.
Digesting Trump's trip through Asia
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 07/11/2025
» Storming through Asia last week, US President Donald Trump's first stop in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 26, before moving on to Japan and South Korea over the next four days, capped by his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping before returning to Washington, was the most consequential for Southeast Asian economies.
'Scam-gate' deserves full accounting
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/10/2025
» The explosive revelations and allegations of regional cybercrimes and scam networks have hit Thailand head-on and placed the government of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in an awkward and defensive position. As more facts surrounding what looks like a labyrinthine cross-border multibillion-dollar transnational criminal ring come to light, more questions have surfaced with no clear answers. The Anutin government needs to come clean and avoid a "scam-gate" of cover-ups and lies at the expense of countless scammed victims across many countries.
Anutin's new cabinet is a mixed bag
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/09/2025
» The composition and size of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's 36-member cabinet suggest that he intends to stay in office for as long as possible, clinging to the terms of the government-enabling Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and calling an early election only if circumstances make it unavoidable.
New govt may last longer than pledged
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/09/2025
» Thailand's latest round of political tumult reached a culmination when the Constitutional Court removed Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the hitherto ruling Pheu Thai (PT) Party from office on Aug 29, paving the way for Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) leader Anutin Charnvirakul to succeed her as prime minister with the Lower House's majority support a week later.
Trump tariffs sow divisions in Asean
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/05/2025
» President Donald Trump's unilateral imposition of tariffs across the United States' economic chessboard poses a critical test for Asean. As the regional organisation of Southeast Asia, Asean has weathered many geopolitical and geoeconomic storms in its 58-year existence, but no adversity like the Trump tariffs. Unless Asean reorganises and regroups, the ten-member body risks further divisions and increasing irrelevance.
Myanmar's civil war after four years
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/01/2025
» Four years after its military coup and consequent civil war, Myanmar's spotlight in global headlines continues to dim as geostrategic reorientations and realignments among the major powers take centre stage. Dramatic and drastic foreign policy changes are afoot in the United States under the second administration of President Donald J Trump, while the European Union faces an existential threat from Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and Japan is mired in political sclerosis at home. Myanmar's fate and future will thus likely be determined by the course and outcome of its civil war, China's expanding influence in the country and Asean member states' manoeuvres to a lesser extent.
Thai police graft highlights bigger issues
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/04/2024
» There is no bigger news on the current Thai political scene than corruption among the top echelons of the police force. At issue is the tussle between Thailand's two senior-most cops, Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn and Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol, both accusing each other of being on the take. Their high-stakes feud would normally be a run-of-the-mill story for the infamously shady Thai police but this case has become a mirror and microcosm of structural graft that is corroding the highest corridors of politics, economy, and society.