• OPINION

  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.

• OPINION

  Reversing Myanmar's internal strife

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/02/2023

  » This month marks two anniversaries of ongoing conflicts in Europe and Southeast Asia, namely 12 months after Russia invaded Ukraine and two years since Myanmar's military seized power by toppling a democratically elected and civilian-led government under Aung San Suu Kyi.

• OPINION

  Thai sovereignty is not for abuse

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 28/10/2022

  » Thailand's dramatic and damaging shift in position towards Russia's aggression in Ukraine raises myriad questions with few answers -- none holding any water.

• OPINION

  Cambodia and Laos in the regional mix

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 30/09/2022

  » As geopolitical tensions from Russian aggression in Ukraine and the ongoing United States-China rivalry intensify, Southeast Asia will be hard-pressed to maintain peace and security. Despite their relatively small size, Cambodia and Laos are two countries whose political trajectories will shape regional outcomes. While Cambodia has consolidated domestic political power with dynamic economic expansion, Laos is looking like a regional laggard facing a deep debt crisis. As Cambodia moves forward, Laos is at risk of being left behind.

• OPINION

  Thailand's bankrupt Myanmar policy

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/06/2022

  » Few signboards foretell the global issues of our time better than what is addressed at the annual meetings of the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) in Singapore. After a pandemic-induced two-year hiatus, the most recent SLD covered the gamut on the main stage, from the United States-China geostrategic competition and military modernisation to security cooperation and climate change. The only anomalous single- and small-country focus in a special session was Myanmar.

• OPINION

  Myanmar military fails sovereignty test

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/02/2022

  » After seizing power from an elected civilian government on Feb 1 last year, Myanmar's military junta under the State Administration Council (SAC) has fallen short of the four categories that constitute the definition of a sovereign state.

• OPINION

  The geopolitics of China's CPTPP move

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/12/2021

  » Nowhere is the intersection between geopolitics and geoeconomics more evident than the accession negotiations under the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). At issue are three new applications for accession by the United Kingdom, China, and Taiwan. While the UK's candidacy alters the geographic crux of what has been Asia-Pacific trade liberalisation, China's and Taiwan's entry efforts represent a proxy showdown between the United States-led global order and 75-year-old alliance system versus Beijing's geostrategic ambitions and objectives.

• OPINION

  China's way with a divided, inert Asean

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 18/06/2021

  » The recent Asean-China foreign ministers' meeting early this month in Chongqing was crucial for its timing and circumstances. Co-chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin, it was the first "in-person" meeting among foreign ministers of both sides since the Covid-19 period began early last year.

• OPINION

  Asean's Myanmar crisis out of control

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/03/2021

  » Myanmar's spiralling post-coup violence and bloodshed has become Asean's existential crisis. It is customary to pin hopes on an Asean way of fudging and nudging the main protagonists into some workable, face-saving compromise to save the day but this time the situation is dire and dark. Unless the 10-member regional organisation can make a difference in halting Myanmar's descent into uncontrollable violence and potential civil war, Asean is at risk of undermining and perhaps ending its success story.

• OPINION

  Myanmar takes lead in autocratic race

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/03/2021

  » In the aftermath of the military coup on Feb 1, Myanmar's armed forces have evidently taken the lead in Southeast Asia's authoritarian race to the bottom. For its speed and depth of reversal from a fragile democracy to a hard dictatorship within six weeks, Myanmar currently ranks top among developing states worldwide. At stake now is not just Myanmar's political future and the well-being of its people but the fate of developing democracies elsewhere.

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