Showing 1 - 10 of 164
The implications of Burma's progress
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 13/01/2012
» Watching Burma's ongoing progress towards democratic reforms and political dialogue from afar is like seeing sprinkling rain turning into a light downpour after a long drought over two decades. It is a spectacular and stunning sight thus far, partly because the long drought stirred pent-up demands and grievances for ways forward.
Don't just keep relying on luck
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/02/2012
» Faraway tensions from the precarious brinkmanship in the Middle East have reached Thai soil with the apparent terrorist bungle in central Bangkok. The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra continues to deny international terrorist presence in Thailand, but the weight of evidence increasingly points to the contrary. Thailand is a soft target among third-country theatres of operation. Unless the Thai authorities beef up their security measures and conduct deft diplomacy in the near term, the risk of this easygoing country degenerating from a transit point for illicit crimes to an outright staging ground of international terrorist violence will grow.
Deprivation to deliverance in Myanmar
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 20/04/2012
» The opposition National League for Democracy's virtual sweep of 43 out of 44 MP seats in Myanmar's recent by-elections was a long time coming.
Euro-style integration not the way forward for East Asia
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/05/2012
» Not so long ago, it was popular for university students in these parts to write term papers on comparisons between the economic integration of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' economic cooperation after the formation of the Asean Free Trade Area in 1992. Such interest in this European-Asean parallel has dried up following the global financial crisis that convulsed the United States and other Western economies in 2007-08 and the spiralling crisis of the euro, the EU's main currency.
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.
China, US widen Asean rifts
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 27/07/2012
» The post-mortems of the failure by Asean to agree on a hitherto routine joint statement after their 45th Ministerial Meeting are coming in thick and heavy. Recriminations and acrimony are crisscrossing the region, the shockwaves being felt and analysed across the Pacific and to the Atlantic.
Asean turns 45 in precarious times
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/08/2012
» For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, turning 45 is hard to do. Its perennial and cliched crossroads may soon become a precipice unless remedial collective action among the group is taken to repair recent setbacks ahead of its summit in November.
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.
US poll has huge implications for Thailand
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/11/2012
» Few spectacles capture world attention like the United States presidential election.
The rise of CLMT and the need for more G-2
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 16/11/2012
» Newly re-elected United States President Barack Obama is due for a visit to Southeast Asia at its most momentous and contentious juncture in contemporary times.