Post-Cold War Security Issues in the Asia-Pacific Region by Colin McInnes Mark Rolls

Author:Colin McInnes, Mark Rolls [Colin McInnes, Mark Rolls]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780714641317
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 1994-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Historical Context

Historically, Thai security policy has focused on Indo-China and has thus been concerned about the political make-up of, and relations with, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. For reasons also resulting from its close proximity, Myanmar (Burma) too has been an area of concern. Cambodia and Laos have long been regarded as ‘buffers’ against the perceived threat of Vietnamese hegemony in Indo-China, a hegemony which would threaten the security of Thailand’s external environment and challenge Thailand’s own regional ambitions. At the heart of Thai security thinking, therefore, was the desire to ensure a favourable ‘distribution of power’, both on mainland Southeast Asia and – often inter-linked – in terms of external power involvement.5 Thai security thinking has thus emphasized the ‘attainment of a secure environment through balance of power arrangements in which preponderant power was organized on the side of Thailand’ throughout the myriad changes in power alignments which occurred.6

This primary desire to preserve, or recreate, a favourable ‘balance of power’ has accordingly influenced Thai foreign relations and security thinking towards the role of extra-regional powers and the wider global confrontation of the Cold War. Thus, throughout the various developments in the post-1945 period (notably the US failure in the second Indo-China war, the communist victories in Indo-China and the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia) Thai thinking has focused on the ‘distribution of power that can be brought to bear on mainland Southeast Asia’.7 Consequently, Thai foreign and security policy has eschewed rigidity and has been highly flexible and pragmatic.8 For example, when the US failure in Vietnam and the communist victories in Indo-China threatened to upset the prevailing power alignments and portended Vietnamese dominance, Thailand sought to transform its relationship with China from one of enmity to friendship. With the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978, this developed, in effect, into a military alliance between the two.

The need for flexibility and pragmatism has, of course, been influenced by the fact that for much of the post-1945 period Thailand has been a ‘frontline’ state, irrespective of whether the threat to it was ‘actual’, or just ‘perceived’. Thai security policy-makers have thus been anxious to ensure the maintenance of national security by whatever means necessary. Hence, during the period of confrontation with the Vietnamese-backed regime in Phnom Penh, the Thai government was prepared to support the communist Khmer Rouge despite simultaneously being involved in a lingering campaign against the Communist Party of Thailand. This pragmatic approach has also led the Thai government to respond rapidly to any perceived changes in the regional environment in order to further Thai security, in spite of the wider diplomatic consequences. This occurred notably with the Chatichai administration’s opening to Vietnam and the Phnom Penh regime in 1988, which was in complete contrast to the then policy of ASEAN and consequently undermined the Association’s solidarity.

A final historic characteristic of Thai security policy has been what has been termed ‘double-track diplomacy’ – that competing groups within the foreign and security policy-making circles have different approaches to the maintenance of national security.

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