Formal peace talks between the Thai government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) will resume in June 2026. This comes despite a recent spike in violence in the far South, which the insurgents are using to demand deeper political discussions to address their demands for “self-government”.

The incoming government of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is finding out very quickly that conflict resolution for the Deep South is not so straightforward and that his quick-fix approach will not achieve the intended results given the complexity of the Deep South.

The Designers of Mountain and Water: Alternative Landscapes for a Changing Climate at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design features the Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park in Bangkok as a model of climate resilence. Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and Phumiyot Lapnarongchai write, however, that the narrative leaves out the lived experience of the local community in Sam Yan, who faces displacement due to development projects.

On 11 December 2025, the Bhumjaithai Party, led by the now Caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, dissolved parliament, with the aim of capitalizing on the nationalist sentiments stirred up by the armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, and the public admiration for the Half-Half Plus Co-Payment Program – a populist program that the government would subsidize half of, in total 2,000 THB per individual daily spent to buy goods. Consequently, intense nationalistic and economic rhetoric has dominated the election programs—combating online scam centers, illicit capital tied to transnational repression, and corruption have become the main emphasis for most parties. These are all genuine concerns, and it is right that they should be raised, but the human rights violations associated with them also need attention.

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's debut feature film, A Useful Ghost (2025), the spirit of a woman returns to live with her husband by possessing a vacuum cleaner. The film, writes Lorence Lozano, the politics of history, memory, and forgetting.

Around the world, young people are utilizing memes and pop culture to send a political message, while social media connects protest movements. Despite surveillance, the internet has become a space for young people to study resistance, explore tactics, and encourage participation.

In one of his first moves as newly appointed Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul has named a new chief negotiator for the peace process in Thailand's far South, a region gripped by a conflict that has claimed over 7,700 lives since 2004. The decision has been met with scepticism, however, as Anutin’s government is set to serve only four months before Parliament is dissolved. Since the negotiating team is mandated by the Cabinet, any new government will be free to appoint its own officials.

When the 19 September 2006 coup happened, Ford Ruangprapaijitseree was in elementary school, and at the time, the coup only meant that he got a day off from school. He writes now that the coup not only revealed how normalised military intervention had become but also set the stage for institutions deliberately designed to weaken civilian authority over the armed forces. Changing this design is now one of Thailand’s most urgent democratic tasks.

The recurring clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are often described as the residue of colonial-era boundary disputes. This explanation, however, obscures the real dynamic: the Thai military’s repeated exploitation of anachronistic disputes to preserve its political dominance.

When ASEAN, led by Malaysia and pressured by Cambodia, pushed to finalize the Terms of Reference (TOR) for establishing a formal ASEAN Observer Team (AOT) to monitor the fragile ceasefire along the Thai-Cambodian border, the government in Bangkok responded with hesitation. Senior officials and military leaders spoke in unison that the Interim Observer Team (IOT), comprising ASEAN military attachés already stationed in Bangkok, was deemed sufficient. No urgent need existed to send real observers from ASEAN capitals. This reluctance illustrates a deeper sovereignty paradox in Thai foreign policy. While Thailand embraces global norms in principle, it consistently resists international participation in matters it regards as domestic.

Following the 1 February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Mae Sot saw an influx of migrants from Myanmar, who came to Thailand fleeing prosecution and violence. Some were professionals - teachers, doctors, and artists. However, writes a Burmese refugee and community organizer in Mae Sot, recent immigration raids and online anti-migrant rhetorics have sowed fear among the community.

Last year, Thailand passed the Marriage Equality Act, which made it the first Southeast Asian country to legalise marriage for all. However, writes political science graduate student and former activist Ford (Tattep) Ruangprapaikitseree, this does not mean it is a free country.