THAILAND’S THREAT PERCEPTION TOWARDS U.S. AND CHINA AFTER COUP 2006 AND 2014

Abstract

This article aimed to study the threat perception of Thailand towards United State and China after Coup 2006 and 2014 from independent studies of The National Defense College of Thailand’s students who were appointed and became the part of the policy decision maker. Studying threat perception through David Singer’s concept and found that Thailand view of the United States and China was distrust of both countries because the United States could withdraw from the ASEAN region and China could be aggressive hegemon as well. So, after the coup, Thailand tried to prevent risks from the above perceptions by establishing security cooperation with both superpower countries through joining the joint military exercises with superpowers. This article presented the joint military exercises between Thailand and US-China from 2007 to 2017, there were obvious changes and developments in Thailand’s security dimension towards the United States and China which was to reduce the aid and intensity of Thai-US annual joint military exercises While military training between Thailand and China has become intense in every year gradually. To sum up, Thailand and the United States-China relations in terms of security in the post-coup d’etat 2006 and 2014 was consistent with Thailand’s threat perception that has been distrustful of both of superpower countries.