Thailand's Foreign Policy: The Struggle for Regional Leadership in Southeast Asia

2014 ◽  
pp. 133-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pongphisoot Busbarat
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Regional Leadership

A Review of Thailand's Foreign Policy in Mainland Southeast Asia: Exploring an Ideational Approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-154 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Economic Rationale ◽  
Regional Leadership ◽  
Regional Projects ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

AbstractIn the post-Cold War period, mainland Southeast Asia has been significantly marked by peace and stability, despite occasional bilateral tensions among neighbouring countries. Within this environment Thailand has been a primary advocate for various sub-regional co-operation initiatives since the early 1990s. Interestingly, these regional projects have mainly been Thailand's own self-initiated version, in which Thailand acts as the main co-ordinator, sometimes bypassing broader regional entities, especially ASEAN. Conventional wisdom may explain this phenomenon by resorting to the economic rationale in Thai foreign policy. However, in some circumstances economic benefit is not a decisive factor considering associated costs. This article, therefore, proposes to use an ideational lens to reassess Thailand's regional leadership by focusing on the role of self-perception/identity in determining Thailand's foreign policy preferences. It argues that Thailand's identity as a leading country in mainland Southeast Asia helps sustain its active role in sub-regional endeavours. The Quadrangle Economic Co-operation (QEC) initiative is examined here to show the intervention of Thailand's self-perception in the endurance of its leadership in this regional initiative.

Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision under Suga: Transition and Future Challenges in Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (03) ◽  
pp. 84-100
Author(s):  
Kei KOGA
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Policy Strategy ◽  
Future Challenges

While the Suga administration has managed Japan’s foreign policy towards ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) relatively well on the basis of the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” that former Prime Minister Abe had envisioned, the administration left a task for the next prime minister to creatively devise a foreign policy strategy to manage the three main challenges in the Indo-Pacific region concerning ASEAN Centrality, Indo-Pacific institutional arrangement and value-based diplomacy.

American Foreign Policy and Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol SEAA20 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Daljit Singh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
American Foreign Policy

scholarly journals The Struggle for Leadership of the Qatari-Turkish Alliance in Somalia

2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
T. R. Khayrullin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Regional Leadership ◽  
Autonomous Regions ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article examines the struggle of the Qatari- Turkish alliance for regional leadership in the Federal Republic of Somalia. The analysis revealed that the foreign policy activity of Turkey and Qatar in Somalia began during the events of the Arab Spring. Ankara and Doha used diplomatic, military and fi nancial instruments to strengthen their infl uence in the country. Moreover, Qatari money played an important role in promoting pro-qatari candidates to power during the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections. However, the eff orts of the Turkish- Qatari alliance to strengthen its position in Somalia have clashed with the interests of the Saudi- Emirati bloc seeking regional dominance. On the other hand, the inability to close the main cooperation with the central government in Somalia forced the UAE to support such autonomous regions as Somaliland, thereby intensifying the destabilization processes in the country.

scholarly journals Sailing Together or Ships Passing in the Night? India and the U.S. in Southeast Asia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Ladwig ◽  
Anit Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Future ◽  
The U.S

Political leaders and analysts have described U.S.-India relations as a globalpartnership with the potential to shape the future security architecture of theIndo-Pacific. As is widely acknowledged, the two countries’ extraregional interestsalign most closely in Southeast Asia. Accordingly, this article examines thepotential for and limitations of U.S. and Indian cooperation in the region to achieveshared aims. It argues that extensive diplomatic consultations between the twocountries have led to a significant convergence in their positions on regionalsecurity challenges. Active cooperation, however, remains constrained by anumber of factors, including India’s need to prioritize foreign policy challengescloser to home, concerns about provoking China, and a discomfort among countriesin Southeast Asia regarding the idea of a joint U.S.-India approach toward theregion. Due to these limitations, U.S.-India policies in Southeast Asia are expectedto operate in parallel instead of becoming a joint endeavor.

Southeast Asia: ASEAN and Its Communist Neighbors

Worldview ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Author(s):  
Gerald Franklin Hyman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Status ◽  
Policy Objectives

Seven years after the fall of Saigori and three and a half after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia/Kampuchea, Southeast Asia is an area in search of equilibrium. That search provides the key to understanding the relations between and among the various states in the region.Vietnam's foreign policy objectives have been fairly clear and in a sense straightforward, at least since 1979. It wants de jure recognition of the status quo; that is, of a unitary Vietnamese state (now widely granted) and of both the Heng Samrin government in Cambodia and the Kaysone government in Laos (far less widely granted). Vietnam says it is seeking a normalization of relations with ASEAN and China for itself and on behalf of the other two Indochinese governments.

The “Cognitive Prior” and the European Challenge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Rüland
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Asian Financial Crisis ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Regional Leadership ◽  
The One ◽  
Policy Elites

This chapter seeks to establish what Acharya has termed the “cognitive prior.” It explores extant Indonesian ideas on foreign policymaking and ASEAN cooperation. Europeanizing changes were triggered by the Asian Financial Crisis (1997–1998), which discredited the ASEAN Way as ASEAN’s established repository of cooperation norms. The chapter shows how the worldviews of Indonesian foreign policy elites have been shaped by adverse historical experiences, which have evoked on the one hand strong sentiments of insecurity and vulnerability, on the other, a strong sense of entitlement to regional leadership. At the regional level, the cognitive prior is strongly influenced by Westphalian sovereignty norms. In the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis the ASEAN Way was challenged by external and domestic critics, climaxing with the ASEAN Charter debate. The chapter ends with an analysis of the institutional changes the Charter inaugurated and the ideas and norms it seemingly appropriated from the EU.

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