Category: Uncategorized
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APEC Was a Missed Opportunity for the United States
When Chinese President Xi Jinping stepped down from the plane that carried him from Bali to Bangkok for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, he was greeted by 2014 coup leader and current Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, and while Xi was mounting his aircraft back home, he was also sent off by Prayut. In […]
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NIDA Polls Paint a Complicated Picture for Prayut’s Future
After the 2014 coup, the then leader of the coup, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, came to power insisting that he had never wanted the post of premier for himself. “I didn’t want to be prime minister. It’s not cool. It’s tiring,” he said in a press conference shortly after the start of his tenure. That was […]
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Why Twitter’s Demise Would Be Very Sad
There’s something that’s simultaneously fascinating and sickening about watching the world’s richest man light up forty billion dollars on fire and fumbling all efforts he’s made to make it a worthy investment. Since crowning himself Twitter’s “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk has seemed to be doing his level best at driving Twitter off a cliff. Perhaps […]
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Takeaways from the CCP’s 20th Party Congress
Thailand would need to adapt its geopolitical game and its economic revival plans after the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s 20th National Congress, whereas widely expected, President Xi Jinping secured a 3rd term as the CCP’s general secretary. Given its opaque politics, the party congress, which happens once every 5-years, provides an important window into […]
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Thailand’s APEC Limelight is Being Rocked by Events Outside its Control
That chairing Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting is something that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha looks forward to, as it may be his final triumph after 8 long years in office but the road leading to this triumphant event is not looking smoot. The crowing moment for his career would be when the leaders of […]
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Analyzing Thai Political Parties’ Taxpayer Donations
The recently released data by the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) on the amount of donation each political party in Thailand received over the past year is a clear indication of how and which criteria of people are supporting each political party in Thailand. Under Thai law any tax paying citizen of the country could […]
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Thailand’s Political Parties in Flux
General Wit Thephasadin Na Ayudhya has been through his fair share of Thai political party drama lately. At the start of this year, he was the chief strategist for the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP). He then did a short stint as the head of the Thai Economics Party, the PPRP breakaway party formed by Captain […]
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Thoughts on the Political Science Ph.D. Application Process
I wanted to write about my own experience applying for Ph.D. programs in political science, in case it is of interest to anyone else looking to pursue a similar path. I don’t claim, of course, to have any special insight into the admissions process for political science Ph.D. programs. However, now that I have just […]
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Chadchart’s Honeymoon Period Washed Away by Rain and Flood
What goes up must come down: such is the law of political gravity. For a while the Governor of Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt, looked like he was an all-conquering colossus who bestrode the political landscape with rockstar popularity and an electoral mandate difficult to rival. Scarcely five months after he was elected in a landslide, however, […]
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Has Time Run Out for Thailand’s Prime Minister?
Thailand’s Constitutional Court, the country’s highest judicial body, temporarily suspended Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha from his duties on Aug. 24. After launching a military coup in 2014, Prayuth presided over the kingdom of 70 million people. But the constitution he helped engineer after the coup limits prime ministers to eight years in power — a limit he may have […]
Ken Mathis Lohatepanont 