The vice presidency of the United States, a particularly unhappy occupant of that office once said, is "not worth a bucket of warm piss." Second in command is a prestigious title, but politicians throughout history have often approached it with a degree of caution. Playing second fiddle can imply great responsibility or none at all. [...]

Tianming, the citizens of ancient China called this concept; "heaven's will", or as translated to English, the "mandate of heaven." It was the philosophical underpinning of the imperial regime. The Emperor, the Son of Heaven, ruled not merely because he had proved able to exercise an effective monopoly on the use of force. No; it [...]

My article in the newly-launched Thai Enquirer:  ...Just because pro-democracy conservatism did not work the first time does not mean that it cannot work in the future, under inspired leadership and a more credible commitment to democratic ideals. With the ongoing implosion of the Democrat Party, is there room for such a party to emerge? [...]

A new decade seems like an opportunity to start afresh and begin anew, but observers of Thai politics, too numbed by false hope and signs of change, are unlikely to look at 2020 with anything more than cynicism. How else, of course, to approach the fact that the new decade has started, once again, with [...]

2019 was a year when so much happened, yet simultaneously nothing happened. Clichés are always risked when quoting Charles Dickens, but I found it difficult to avoid this one from A Christmas Carol when describing Thailand in 2019: "It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair". There were moments of rays [...]

This past week saw parliamentary chaos over whether or not to establish a committee examining the now-defunct National Council for Peace & Order's usage of Section 44, which permitted the NCPO chief to issue absolute executive commands. The fiasco went briefly as follows: the government initially lost the vote, as six members of Prime Minister [...]