The US-Thai Alliance and Asian International Relations. History, Memory and Current Developments

249 Pages·2021·23.295 MB·English

by  Gregory Raymond, John Blaxland

The US- Thai Alliance and Asian

International Relations
Thailand, a long- standing defence partner of the United States and ASEAN’s
second largest economy, occupies a geostrategically important position as a
land bridge between China and maritime Southeast Asia. This book, based
on extensive original research, explores the current state of US- Thai relations,
paying particular attention to how the United States is perceived by a wide
range of people in the Thai defence establishment and highlighting the
importance of historical memory. The book outlines how the US- Thai rela-
tionship has been complicated and at times turbulent, discusses how Thailand
is deeply embedded in multi- faceted relationships with many Asian states, not
just China, and examines how far the United States is blind to the complexities
of Asian international relations by focusing too much on China. The book
concludes by assessing how US- Thai relations are likely to develop going for-
ward. Additionally, the work contributes to alliance theory by showing how
domestic politics shapes memory, which in turn affects perceptions of other
states.
Gregory Raymond is a lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre,
Australian National University, Canberra.
John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies,
in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University,
Canberra.
Routledge Security in Asia Pacific Series

Series Editors
Leszek Buszynski, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian
National University, and William Tow, Australian National University.
Security issues have become more prominent in the Asia Pacific region
because of the presence of global players, rising great powers and confident
middle powers, which intersect in complicated ways. This series puts forward
important new work on key security issues in the region. It embraces the roles
of the major actors, their defense policies and postures and their security inter-
action over the key issues of the region. It covers the United States, China,
Japan, Russia, the Koreas, as well as the middle powers of ASEAN and South
Asia. It also addresses issues relating to environmental and economic security
as well as transnational actors and regional groupings.
32 Japan’s Search for Strategic Security Partnerships
Edited by Gauri Khandekar and Bart Gaens
33 Geopolitics and the Western Pacific
China, Japan and the US
Leszek Busznski
34 The South China Sea
From a Regional Maritime Dispute to Geo- Strategic Competition
Edited by Leszek Buszynski and Do Thanh Hai
35 China in Japan’s National Security: Domestic Credibility
Toshiya Takahashi
36 Cambodia’s China Strategy
Security Dilemmas of Embracing the Dragon
Chanborey Cheunboran
37 The US- Thai Alliance and Asian International Relations
History, Memory and Current Developments
Gregory Raymond and John Blaxland
The US- Thai Alliance and

Asian International Relations
History, Memory and Current
Developments
Gregory Raymond and John Blaxland
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2021 Gregory Raymond and John Blaxland
The right of Gregory Raymond and John Blaxland to be identified as authors
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
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ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 14644- 3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 01006- 9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 05288- 0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents

About the authors vi

Acknowledgements viii

1 Introduction: history, memory and the US- Thai alliance 1

2 Thailand and the Great Powers 29

3 Historical memory and the US- Thai alliance 67

4 Rediscovering China 101

5 Thailand at the centre I: pan- Asianism and ASEAN 135

6 Thailand at the centre II: neighbours 154

Conclusion: an alliance in trouble 178

Bibliography 196

Glossary 212

Annexure 213

Index 235
About the authors

Gregory Raymond is a lecturer in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs
researching Southeast Asian politics and foreign relations. He is the author
of Thai Military Power: A Culture of Strategic Accommodation (NIAS Press,
2018). His work has been published in journals including Contemporary
Southeast Asia, South East Asia Research and the Journal of Cold War
Studies. As well as convening the ASEAN-Australia Defence Postgraduate
Scholarship Program, he is ANU Press editor for the Asia-Pacific Security
series. He holds a PhD in political science from La Trobe University and an
MA in Asian Studies from Monash University. Before joining the Australian
National University, Raymond was a policy advisor in the Australian gov-
ernment, as well as in the strategic and international policy areas of the
Department of Defence and the Australian Embassy in Bangkok.
Dr Raymond’s research is at the intersection of area studies and inter-
national relations, and aims to add depth to understanding of the dynamics
of the Asia Pacific region by highlighting the importance of state preference
and national identity. His work on strategic culture, collective memory and
institutions focuses on the importance of culture, memory and the construc-
tion of history in Southeast Asia, and assessing its role in Southeast Asian
defence planning and relations with Great Powers. As a Thai studies scholar,
he also researches the politics of Thailand and its relations with its neighbours.
An emerging research area is the integration of the Mekong sub-region with
southern China, which he is exploring through multiple lenses including phys-
ical connectivity, geo-economics and sub-regional community.
John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence
Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) and the first Australian
recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant.
He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the
Royal Society of New South Wales and a member of the editorial board for
the Australian Army Journal. He is also a former military intelligence officer, a
former Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at ANU, and occa-
sional media commentator.
At ANU, he researches, writes and teaches about intelligence, cyber
security; Australian military history, strategy and operations; defence studies;
About the authors vii
and, International relations on Asia Pacific security affairs, notably Southeast
Asia.
His publications include Niche Wars: Australia in Afghanistan and Iraq,
2001–2014 (2020); In from the Cold: Reflections on Australia’s Korean War,
1950–53 (2020); A Geostrategic SWOT Analysis for Australia (2019); The
Secret Cold War (2016); East Timor Intervention (2015); The Protest Years
(2015); The Australian Army from Whitlam to Howard (2014); Strategic
Cousins (2006); Revisiting Counterinsurgency (2006); Information-era
Manoeuvre (2003); Signals: Swift and Sure (1998); and Organising an Army
(1989).
Acknowledgements

This book is the result of a research grant initially awarded in 2015 by the
Minerva Research Initiative from within the United States Department of
Defense. The project involved us, as academics employed by the Australian
National University (ANU) in Canberra, undertaking research in Thailand
on a topic that reflected an interest in understanding the implications of
the US so-called “pivot to Asia.” The project’s initial title was “Thailand’s
Military, the USA and China: The Influence of Great Powers on the Strategic
Choices of the Thai Armed Forces.” In receiving the grant, we became the first
recipients of a Minerva Research Initiative grant outside of North America.
That grant led us to undertake a project spanning several years, from 2015
onwards, and involving a survey of students from Thailand’s armed service
academies, staff colleges, war colleges, joint staff college and national defence
college, as well as students at a government postgraduate program known as
the King Prajadiphok Institute in Bangkok.
In all, 1800 respondents completed our survey over the course of three
years of in-country surveying. This involved us soliciting their views on how
Thais perceive themselves and the world around them in terms of inter-
national relations and great power dynamics, in a historical context. The
surveys were complemented by interviews with more than two dozen senior
serving or retired government officials, mostly from the Ministry of Defense
or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Along the way we also conducted a number
of workshops in order to validate and explore the implications of some of the
quantitative data we were collecting. For this we were ably supported over
three years by the successive heads of the Royal Thai Armed Forces (RTArF)
Strategic Studies Center. This project involved an outstanding degree of
collaboration and support from elements of the RTArF including the Thai
Ministry of Defense, RTArF Headquarters, the Royal Thai Army (RTA),
Royal Thai Navy (RTN) and Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF).
This could not have been possible without a remarkable level of support
and assistance from a range of friends and colleagues as well as many who
did not personally know us but who could see the utility and purpose of the
project and were willing to lend a hand. This included officials working in
the U.S. Department of Defense Army Research office and Navy Research
Acknowledgements ix
Office including Dr Cung Vu, Dr Lisa Troyer, Dr David Montgomery, Dr
Erin Fitzgerald, Dr Andrew Higier, and Dr Ivy Estabrooke.
We received outstanding support from a succession of Australian
ambassadors and other diplomats including Bill Paterson, Paul Robilliard
and James Wise, as well as Ms. Savitree Jongsuwat and colonel Andrew
Duft in the Defence section of the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. We owe
thanks also to the Australian Consul General in Hawaii, Jeff Robinson, and a
member of his staff, Damien Donavan, who went out of their way to facilitate
workshops and engagement opportunities for us with interlocutors in Hawaii.
The ANU staff at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, Martha Evans
and John Wellard, followed by Paul Harris were also a great help facilitating
engagement with interlocutors across the city, as was Dr Sheridan Kearnan.
Others were also very helpful including in the East West Centre in
Washington D.C., where Dr Satu Limaye facilitated a workshop, as well as
Ralph A. Cossa and Kerry Gershaneck at Pacific Forum in Hawaii, and at the
Centre for Strategic and International Studies, where Dr Amy Searight, along
with my ANU colleague, (and Centre of Gravity series editor) Dr Andrew
Carr, facilitated a joint CSIS and ANU publication in November 2017 with
our interim findings entitled Tipping the Balance in Southeast Asia? Thailand,
the United States and China.
The most important assistance came from members of the Royal
Thai Armed Forces who offered ongoing support, assistance, advice and
introductions, facilitating engagement and helping to overcome challenges
along the way. Chief amongst them was General Surapong Suwanna-adth,
a now retired former Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) of the RTArF, former
senior instructor at the RTA Command and General Staff College (where
John first met him as an Australian exchange student). General Surapong
is also an old graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. Equally as helpful
was his predecessor as CDF, General Boonsrang Niumpradit, himself a West
Point graduate and one of a select few Thais to command Australians and
other international contingents as part of the United Nations peacekeeping
operation in East Timor. Others who were very helpful, from the RTA
included Lieutenant Generals Jont Kraprayoon, Thitinant Uttamang, Niphat
Thonglek, Surasit Thanadtang, Chaianan Chantakananuruk and Werachon
Sukhondapatipak, as well as Major Generals Thunlathorn Nawapid, Jumphon
Chalertoy, Terdsak Dumkhum, Kittiphong Wongskhaluang, Werachart
Palakawong Na Ayutthaya, Paiboon Vorrawanpreecha, Pipattana Nilkaew,
Nantawong Choktaworn, Ruchaglaw Kongkeo and Wandee Tosuwan.
Colonels Banchachit Saensunon and Nonthawat Pakdipongpitchaya were
also instrumental in making this happen. From the RTN, Admiral Graivut
Vattanatham, Pongthep Nhuthep, Vice Admiral Wittanarat Gajaseni, Rear
Admiral Apichai Sompolgrunk and Nawee Luthaivathunyou. From the
RTAF, Air Vice Marshal Adisorn Unhalekhaka, Pongpoomet Nhoonil,
Poomjai Leksuntarakorn Group Captain Verachon Pensri. From the Royal
Thai Police, Police Superintendent Dr. Jessada Burinsuchat.