Organizer: Southeast Asia Research Group, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Type/Location: Hybrid / Madison, WI

Description:

Since 1980, Thailand’s monarchy and military (specifically the army as the most powerful security institution) have enjoyed a partnership of power with the latter as a junior affiliate — a highly “monarchized military” under  a palace-dominant parallel state. However, after 1992, direct military influence across the country diminished, and after the 2006 and 2014 coups, the military regained enormous clout. The country’s post-2019 facade democracy represented the continuation of a tutelary regime involving palace-endorsed military intervention in politics and apparent electoral governance. 2023 was profoundly significant because a new civilian government entered office that year, which might challenge monarchy-military primacy. The study chiefly asks: Since 2023, to what extent has the monarchy-military partnership clothed itself under the appearance of democracy (while indirectly interfering in it) to sustain its power, and what are the principal challenges this partnership faces? The study finds that in 2025, Thailand remains a façade democracy, characterized by electoral authoritarianism and lorded over by monarchy and military — a situation the two institutions have preferred to maintain.

About the Speaker:

Paul Chambers earned his PhD at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and currently serves as Lecturer and Advisor for International Affairs at the College of ASEAN Community Studies, Naresuan University, Thailand. He is also research fellow at both the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore and the German-Southeast Asian Centre for Public Policy and Good Governance. Finally, he is editor of the Journal Asian Affairs: An American Review. His research focuses upon civil-military relations, security-sector reform, and democratization in Southeast Asia.

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