Showing 1 - 10 of 11
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".
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.
Global turmoil and Thailand's political reset
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/12/2018
» As the world moves into 2019, there is a consensus that the roughly seven-decade-old rules-based liberal international order no longer works. Either it has to be fundamentally revamped to suit new realities and the international distribution of power and wealth, or it will be increasingly violated and marginalised. In a remarkable parallel, Thailand's hitherto political order that lasted about seven decades also requires adjustment and recalibration.
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.
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.
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.
Global disarray as institutions falter
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/08/2015
» The international system as we know it is unravelling. Rules and institutions that were set up seven decades ago no longer hold the same weight and authority as they used to. As we grapple with an exacerbating global disorder, established powers and players and old rules and institutions need to be revamped and reinvented to accommodate new realities. Otherwise global tensions will mount, most probably accompanied by confrontation and conflict.
Language is way forward in deep South
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/07/2015
» In multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies, language is about more than communication. It is about recognition and accommodation, power and power-sharing. When society fosters power-sharing and forges compromise and consensus to underpin societal cohesion and achieve relative peace at home, the role of official and national languages can be powerful and paramount.
Thailand fits bill as tough broker on South China Sea
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/09/2013
» Over the past several years, tensions in the South China Sea over conflicting territorial claims between Asean states and China have become Southeast Asia's thorniest obstacle for regional peace and prosperity.
Syria crisis poses enormous risks for global order
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/09/2013
» The brewing brinkmanship over the Syrian government's apparent chemical weapons use against its own population has the ring of reality internet show about it that marks a new era in foreign policy formulation and the maintenance of international order. If the fluid international manoeuvrings turn out farcically, what is left of what we know as order in the international system will be further undermined and leave us with growing turbulence and inchoate anarchy as this new century progresses.