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The Thailand-US Alliance in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy
An Indo Pacific Foreign Policy and Defense Seminar featuring:
Mr. Kavi Chongkittavorn
Asia Studies Visiting Fellow,
East-West Center in Washington
Dr. Satu Limaye (Moderator)
Director, East-West Center in Washington
This year the United States and Thailand mark their 200-year-old friendship, which began in 1818. Thailand was the first country to establish diplomatic ties with the United States, making this relationship the United States’ oldest with an Asian nation. This longstanding friendship is the focus of Kavi Chongkittavorn’s research at East West Center in Washington. He is interested in the nature of US-Thai security cooperation, which has been in existence for the past 56 years. During the height of the Cold War, Thailand and US were close military allies in fighting against communism. While their security cooperation has continued unabated over the past few decades, the depth and scope of their relations remain unchanged since the 1960’s when the Thanat-Rush Communique was signed. With new security and strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region including the rise of China and other emerging powers, Thai-US defense cooperation must be reevaluated and, if necessary, reinvented in order to face 21st century challenges together.
For more images, please visit the album for this event on the East-West Center's Flickr page.
Kavi Chongkittavorn is a Senior Fellow at Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University. His research interests are: US foreign policy toward Southeast Asia, especially with Thailand, the future of Indo-Pacific and regional security architecture. He was a former editor-in-chief of Myanmar Times from February to December 2017. He has been a journalist for the past three decades with the English-daily, The Nation, from 1984-2013. From 1994-1995, he served as a special assistant to ASEAN secretary general based in Jakarta. He is now the columnist for The Bangkok Post.
Dr. Satu Limaye is Director of the East West Center in Washington and the creator of the Asia Matters for America/America Matters for Asia initiative. He is also Senior Advisor, CNA Corporation. Earlier, Dr. Limaye served on the research staff of the Strategy, Forces & Resources Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and Director of Research & Publications at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies. His recent publications include: Weighted West, Focused on the Indian Ocean and Cooperating Across the Indo-Pacific: India's New Maritime Strategy, Capabilities and Diplomacy (CNA, 2017); "Integrating an Ally and an Aligner in a 'Principled Security Network': The U.S. and the India-Japan Strategic Partnership" in Rajesh Basrur and Sumithi Narayanan Kutty (eds.) The India-Japan Strategic Partnership, Springer: 2018; "ASEAN is Neither the Problem Nor Solution to South China Sea Disputes," in Gilbert Rozman and Joseph Chinyong Liow, International Relations and Asia's Southern Tier, 2017; "From Peak to Plateau in U.S.-ASEAN Relations," in Mari Elka Pangestu and Rastam Mohd Isa (eds.), ASEAN Future Forward, 2017. Dr. Limaye also writes the annual analysis of India-East Asia and US-India relations for the Pacific Forum CSIS journal Comparative Connections. He is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar.
The Thailand-US Alliance in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy
An Indo Pacific Foreign Policy and Defense Seminar featuring:
Mr. Kavi Chongkittavorn
Asia Studies Visiting Fellow,
East-West Center in Washington
Dr. Satu Limaye (Moderator)
Director, East-West Center in Washington
This year the United States and Thailand mark their 200-year-old friendship, which began in 1818. Thailand was the first country to establish diplomatic ties with the United States, making this relationship the United States’ oldest with an Asian nation. This longstanding friendship is the focus of Kavi Chongkittavorn’s research at East West Center in Washington. He is interested in the nature of US-Thai security cooperation, which has been in existence for the past 56 years. During the height of the Cold War, Thailand and US were close military allies in fighting against communism. While their security cooperation has continued unabated over the past few decades, the depth and scope of their relations remain unchanged since the 1960’s when the Thanat-Rush Communique was signed. With new security and strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region including the rise of China and other emerging powers, Thai-US defense cooperation must be reevaluated and, if necessary, reinvented in order to face 21st century challenges together.
For more images, please visit the album for this event on the East-West Center's Flickr page.
Kavi Chongkittavorn is a Senior Fellow at Institute of Security and International Studies, Chulalongkorn University. His research interests are: US foreign policy toward Southeast Asia, especially with Thailand, the future of Indo-Pacific and regional security architecture. He was a former editor-in-chief of Myanmar Times from February to December 2017. He has been a journalist for the past three decades with the English-daily, The Nation, from 1984-2013. From 1994-1995, he served as a special assistant to ASEAN secretary general based in Jakarta. He is now the columnist for The Bangkok Post.
Dr. Satu Limaye is Director of the East West Center in Washington and the creator of the Asia Matters for America/America Matters for Asia initiative. He is also Senior Advisor, CNA Corporation. Earlier, Dr. Limaye served on the research staff of the Strategy, Forces & Resources Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and Director of Research & Publications at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies. His recent publications include: Weighted West, Focused on the Indian Ocean and Cooperating Across the Indo-Pacific: India's New Maritime Strategy, Capabilities and Diplomacy (CNA, 2017); "Integrating an Ally and an Aligner in a 'Principled Security Network': The U.S. and the India-Japan Strategic Partnership" in Rajesh Basrur and Sumithi Narayanan Kutty (eds.) The India-Japan Strategic Partnership, Springer: 2018; "ASEAN is Neither the Problem Nor Solution to South China Sea Disputes," in Gilbert Rozman and Joseph Chinyong Liow, International Relations and Asia's Southern Tier, 2017; "From Peak to Plateau in U.S.-ASEAN Relations," in Mari Elka Pangestu and Rastam Mohd Isa (eds.), ASEAN Future Forward, 2017. Dr. Limaye also writes the annual analysis of India-East Asia and US-India relations for the Pacific Forum CSIS journal Comparative Connections. He is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and received his doctorate from Oxford University (Magdalen College) where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar.
