Thailand
Essay,
Nov/Dec
2009
Will President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia herald a new era in relations between Washington and the countries of Southeast Asia? In 2009, Christopher S. Bond and Lewis M. Simons wrote that the United States should use trade, aid, and education to alleviate poverty and prevent terrorism in the region.
Reading List,
July 7, 2009
An annotated Foreign Affairs syllabus on Thai politics.
Essay,
Jul/Aug
2009
After widespread civil unrest, Thailand remains deeply polarized, its economy is contracting, and its king is getting older. Whatever the outcome of the present crisis, the future of Thai democracy does not look good.
Essay,
Jan
1973
The implications of an uncertain ceasefire in Indochina and the possible beginning of separate political dialogues in Laos and Cambodia have again focused attention on Washington's alliance with Thailand, the only nation on the mainland of Southeast Asia which the United States is bound by treaty to defend. Significantly too, Thailand faces an increasingly serious, if not yet critical, insurgency. No matter how the situation in each of the three Indochina states is finally resolved, President Nixon's decisions on Thailand in the next year will largely determine the future course of American policy and involvement in Southeast Asia during the decade ahead.
Essay,
Jan
1968
Insurgencies spring from local conditions. Though a truism, this statement is still valuable in helping to determine the probable seriousness of present or threatened communist guerrilla activities. Conditions in Northeast Thailand make it in many ways an obvious seat of insurgency, and the Thai and United States Governments are increasingly concerned.
Essay,
Apr
1951
Editor's Note: For a French view of the situation in Indo-China see "Indo-China and Korea: One Front," by Jacques Soustelle, Foreign Affairs, October 1950.
