Organizer: Thailand Studies Program, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
Type/Location: Virtual
Description:
The recent escalation of armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia over a territorial dispute was unexpected, particularly since both countries are currently led by powerful families with close ties going back nearly two decades. While the precise origins of the conflict remain a matter of speculation, one pattern is striking: past Thai-Cambodian disputes, including those from 2008–2013 and the current conflict, have emerged when Thaksinite governments were politically vulnerable and under fierce attack from their opponents. In this sense, today’s border conflict is less an anachronistic territorial dispute than a reflection of Thailand’s domestic politics.
This webinar will address potential solutions and the many obstacles that stand in the way. These include ultra-nationalist sentiment, widespread public distrust of the government, and the weakness of civilian leadership, which has created an opening for the military to reassert its strategic primacy beyond security matters into the political sphere. Together, these factors have hindered efforts to fully implement the ASEAN-brokered ceasefire and made peaceful resolution increasingly challenging.
About the Speakers:
Dr. Puangthong R. Pawakapan is Professor at Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. Some of her publications are Infiltrating Society: The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs (ISEAS, 2021); State and Uncivil Society in Thailand at the Preah Vihear Temple (ISEAS, 2013); “Thailand’s Response to the Cambodian Genocide,” (2013).
Mr. Supalak Ganjanakhundee currently serves as an advisor to the Military Affairs Committee of Thailand’s House of Representatives. A former journalist, he served as chief editor of The Nation newspaper (2019) and later as a visiting fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute (2019–2020). He is the author of A Soldier King: Monarchy and the Military in the Thailand of Rama X (ISEAS, 2022).
Registration:
To attend the event in person, please register here.
To attend the event virtually, please register here.