Pragmatism at the Expense of National Security: Thailand's Bilateral Relations With Myanmar

ABSTRACT Constructive engagement was a centerpiece of Thailand's bilateral relations with Myanmar for more than three decades, allowing consecutive governments to exploit it for its natural resources, and the development of often corrupt economic partnerships between private and state‐owned enterprises. After the May 2014 coup that swept Prayut Chan‐o‐cha into power, Thai military elites developed intricate personal relationships with the Tatmadaw and Myanmar's coup planners, leading to a parasitic, personalistic variety of pragmatism that this paper argues, in the pursuit of “khaki capitalism,” has compromised Thailand's longer‐term national security interests. This paper chronicles the evolution of Thailand's Myanmar policy, with a specific focus on changes in how national security is perceived across multiple governments. With pragmatism as a key analytical concept, this article also details how Thailand's pragmatic accommodation of Myanmar has also compromised ASEAN's efforts to resolve a regional crisis.