AUTHOR'S BIO
Thitinan Pongsudhirak
Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Professor and Director of Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok. He is also a visiting professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
| RECENT COMMENTARIES | FEATURED COMMENTARIES | MOST READ COMMENTARIES |
-
A Thai Spring?
Thitinan Pongsudhirak Series: The World in Words 2011-07-06The results of Thailand’s recent general election will seem familiar to anyone attuned to the political upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa. As in those countries, new information technology, demographic shifts, rising expectations, and the obsolescence of Cold War exigencies have placed an entrenched regime under unprecedented pressure.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 12027
-
The Battle of the Temples
Thitinan Pongsudhirak Series: The Asian Century 2011-05-06
The deadly military skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia since February are primarily attributable to domestic politics in both countries. A secure peace will depend mainly on how Thailand’s domestic endgame plays out in the coming months – and on Cambodia’s willingness to stay out of it.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 12280
-
Thailand in Yellow and Red
Thitinan Pongsudhirak Series: The Asian Century 2011-03-18After three consecutive years of deadly street protests, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has pledged to call early polls after a parliamentary no-confidence debate is held. But without serious compromise on both sides, Thailand’s increasingly dangerous political impasse will continue.... read Comments: 4 Recommended: 0 Read: 12812
-
Thailand’s Endless Endgame
Thitinan Pongsudhirak Series: The Asian Century 2009-11-02
The hospitalization of King Bhumibol Adulyadej has brought Thailand’s most daunting question to the fore. The country’s wrenching political struggle over the past several years has, at bottom, concerned what will happen after the ailing 81-year-old king’s reign, now at 63 years, comes to an end. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 12671
-
The Crisis of Thai Democracy
Thitinan Pongsudhirak Series: The Asian Century 2006-03-14One year after he was re-elected in a landslide, Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been forced to dissolve the National Assembly and call a snap election. Although his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party commands a 75% majority in the assembly, Thaksin is embattled. He remains immensely popular with rural voters and the urban poor, who comprise more than 60% of Thailand’s electorate, but he has been battling a fervent Bangkok-based insurrection against his rule by the intelligentsia and middle classes.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 20324
-
Asia’s Age of Thaksin?
Thitinan Pongsudhirak Series: The Asian Century 2005-04-11The retirements from frontline politics of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamed have deprived Southeast Asia of its senior leaders. Can Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fill the regional leadership vacuum? ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19350
