• OPINION

  The politics of the Nasa controversy

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 03/07/2012

  » Thai quipsters have put it aptly _ it is now easier for the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) to go to the Moon than to come to Thailand, now that the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has opted for parliamentary debate instead of a cabinet resolution.

• OPINION

  Cultivating the major powers

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/10/2012

  » Among the countries of Southeast Asia, Thailand holds special and resilient relationships with all of the major powers that are the region's movers and shakers.

• OPINION

  Changing our education timetable is a really dumb idea

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/09/2013

  » It has become a cliche to say that Thailand's education system needs an overhaul. From the coloured political divide and industrial upgrading to broader economic competitiveness, it is said that education is the root cause of the country's political and socio-economic ills. This is not untrue. Symptomatic of these education woes and defects are the confusion and contradictions among bureaucrats and administrators over the timetable for the next school year. Thai kids are not only being taught poorly but they are not even sure when to go to school again after the summer recess.

• OPINION

  Domestic politics puts checks on Asean

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/06/2014

  » As it approaches its 47th birthday, heading into the final stretch of its highly touted integrated community, Asean appears increasingly challenged both within the 10-member organisation and the region.

• OPINION

  China has global leadership in its sights

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/11/2014

  » This geopolitical summit season has consolidated ongoing megatrends in international affairs. A still-rising China with global leadership aspirations and a resurgent Russia bent on imperial restoration in view of dysfunction in Western countries will dominate international politics for at least the next 20 years.

• OPINION

  How not to organise our education timetable

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 12/06/2015

  » A new discussion by the Council of University Presidents of Thailand to revert academic schedules back to the old system is instructive on three levels that expose the fundamental weaknesses of Thai education, the sobering reality of the Asean Economic Community, and the top-down, patronising attitude of government over the governed.

• OPINION

  China's 'water grab' and its consequences

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/03/2016

  » China's pattern of regional conduct has come increasingly into focus. It is much less about maintaining the way things have been -- otherwise known as the "status quo" -- and much more about revising the established dynamics and contours in the region to its preferences.

• OPINION

  Thai-US relations back on the move again?

  News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 09/06/2017

  » Soon after the Asean Summit in April, United States President Donald J Trump placed phone calls to three Southeast Asian leaders and invited them to the White House.

• OPINION

  Aukus poses challenges to other powers

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/10/2021

  » The Australia-United Kingdom-United States (Aukus) security pact has caused ripple effects across oceans and continents. Not only will the trilateral security partnership provoke China, but it will likely further divide Southeast Asia and overshadow Asean-centred cooperative vehicles, such as the East Asia Summit. Beyond these concerns, the Aukus deal to share Anglo-American nuclear technology to enable Australia's acquisition of eight nuclear-powered submarines over two decades poses challenges to other major powers, particularly the European Union and its key members as well as Japan.

• OPINION

  Thailand can't have it both ways abroad

  Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 05/11/2021

  » Images of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha hobnobbing with world leaders like United States President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow sparked mixed feelings at home.

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