[Simon Creak, a PhD Candidate at The Australian National University, has examined the issues at stake in next month's SEA Games in Laos for Asia Times Online. Supposedly a massive achievement for the small country, the games have been scaled back and are dependent on enormous foreign funding. What to make of the paradox? Read [...]
Little Laos awaits its big moment
November 6th, 2009 by Simon Creak, Guest Contributor · 1 Comment
Tags: Laos
Commentary on Thailand’s Crown Prince
November 6th, 2009 by Nicholas Farrelly · 14 Comments
Vajiralongkorn is a graduate from Australia’s Royal Military College in Canberra and has trained with the U.S., British and Australian armed services…His Western lifestyle is not discussed openly, thanks again to lese majeste. But people have privately asked whether he has the natural authority to unify the nation, especially given his partisanship towards the military. [...]
Tags: Asian Studies · Royal family · Thailand
Review of Wassana
November 6th, 2009 by Craig Reynolds, Guest Contributor · 11 Comments
Wassana Nanuam, Lap luang phrang phak phitsadan [Secrets, Trickery, and Camouflage: The Improbable Phenomena]. Bangkok, Post Books, 2009. 303 pp. In Thai.
Soldiers, guns and coups have played a big role in Thailand’s politics for centuries. Historians think that the Front Palace incident in 1874 early in the reign of the fifth Bangkok king was actually [...]
Tags: Book Reviews · Militaries · Thailand
Webcast on McCargo’s Tearing the Land Apart
November 6th, 2009 by Andrew Walker · 2 Comments
From the Asia Society:
The Asia Society wants to let you know about an upcoming webcast, Tearing the Land Apart: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand, featuring the author, Duncan McCargo, Southeast Asian Politics, University of Leeds. This event will take place at the Asia Society headquarters in New York tomorrow, Friday, November 6, 2009 from [...]
Tags: Conferences · Southern Thailand · Thailand