Description
Recent years have seen an increasing drift in US-Thai relations as the Rise of China has altered geopolitical and economic dynamics throughout South-East Asia. The relationship was once defined by common interests during the Cold War in opposing communist movements in the region, despite Thailand’s authoritarian politics, and then Thailand’s brief democratic era in the 1990s and 2000s culminating in Thailand being designated a major non-NATO ally in 2003. This has been fractured by an increasing turn to anti-democratic forms of government since the 2006 coup in Thailand and its subsequent closer relations with China. This paper draws on an eclectic blend of International Relations theories to account for both US geopolitical concerns with regards to Thailand in East Asia and the broader cultural significance of Thailand in US foreign policy. Overall this paper will identify and describe the key themes in US foreign policy towards Thailand over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries to better assess relations between the two countries today.
