Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts

With the looming power shifts in East Asia, it is crucial to examine Thailand’s strategic behavior towards China and the United States within the period of 1946 to 2016. As the ‘balance of power’ theory was not as well established for secondary states, the article aims to examine the conditions requ...

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Main Author: Lee, Corene Qian
Other Authors: Kei Koga
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71652
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-716522019-12-10T12:12:21Z Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts Lee, Corene Qian Kei Koga School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences With the looming power shifts in East Asia, it is crucial to examine Thailand’s strategic behavior towards China and the United States within the period of 1946 to 2016. As the ‘balance of power’ theory was not as well established for secondary states, the article aims to examine the conditions required for their preferred use of strategic behaviors such as balancing, bandwagoning or hedging. To have a better understanding of Thailand’s strategic behaviors, the article will focus on three periods of power shifts – Cold War, Post-Cold War and the 21st Century. In contrary to the predictions that countries only balance against or bandwagon with rising major powers made by the ‘balance of power’ theory, Thailand showed a preference in the hedging strategy to maximize gains of the alliances. Findings reveal that Thailand is currently hedging with both major powers, and at the same time exhibiting low-intensity bandwagoning with China. As Thailand practices the principle of pragmatism in her diplomacy and her minimal power asset in contributing to the defense alliances, the article argues that Thailand will most likely continue to adopt a hedging approach with either a low-intensity balancing against or bandwagoning with China in future. Bachelor of Arts 2017-05-18T06:17:46Z 2017-05-18T06:17:46Z 2017 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71652 en Nanyang Technological University 37 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Social sciences
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences
Lee, Corene Qian
Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts
description With the looming power shifts in East Asia, it is crucial to examine Thailand’s strategic behavior towards China and the United States within the period of 1946 to 2016. As the ‘balance of power’ theory was not as well established for secondary states, the article aims to examine the conditions required for their preferred use of strategic behaviors such as balancing, bandwagoning or hedging. To have a better understanding of Thailand’s strategic behaviors, the article will focus on three periods of power shifts – Cold War, Post-Cold War and the 21st Century. In contrary to the predictions that countries only balance against or bandwagon with rising major powers made by the ‘balance of power’ theory, Thailand showed a preference in the hedging strategy to maximize gains of the alliances. Findings reveal that Thailand is currently hedging with both major powers, and at the same time exhibiting low-intensity bandwagoning with China. As Thailand practices the principle of pragmatism in her diplomacy and her minimal power asset in contributing to the defense alliances, the article argues that Thailand will most likely continue to adopt a hedging approach with either a low-intensity balancing against or bandwagoning with China in future.
author2 Kei Koga
author_facet Kei Koga
Lee, Corene Qian
format Final Year Project
author Lee, Corene Qian
author_sort Lee, Corene Qian
title Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts
title_short Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts
title_full Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts
title_fullStr Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts
title_full_unstemmed Security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of Thailand in East Asian power shifts
title_sort security strategy under uncertainty : the behavior of thailand in east asian power shifts
publishDate 2017
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71652
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