Security policy of Thailand in relation to non-traditional threats in Southeast Asia in 21st century

Ватчаравутпаттана Петчада

Аннотация


After the end of the Cold War and following the rise of globalization, a new dimension of security has emerged in international relations. Traditional threats based on military matters are now no longer dominant concerns of international security. New threats, so-called “non-traditional threats” are non-military and transnational in nature. Talking about the definition of non-traditional threats, there are different perceptions of scholars and schools of thought. However, the dominant school of thought in defining non-traditional threats is Copenhagen school, led by Barry Buzan. The Copenhagen school has broadened the definition of security that includes not only military and political issues, but also economic, societal, and environmental issues which the states have to deal with.
Such new threats do not occur from competition between states or shifts in the balance of power, but are often defined in political and socio-economic terms. The impact of non-traditional security threats does not affect only one sector of security but all sectors (economic, political, society and also environmental).
Due to complex characteristic (transnational in nature) of non-traditional security threats and uncertain directions, states thus cannot solve such issues by themselves. National solutions are often inadequate and would thus essentially require regional and multilateral cooperation. In this sense, the referent objects of non-traditional security are no longer just the states, but also the individual and non-state actors. Furthermore, because of growing multilateral cooperation, non-traditional security threats are now big concerns on regional level. States within Southeast Asia are also effected by the rising of non-traditional threats. It is interesting to examine how the states cope with these new threats in domestic and regional levels. In this case, Thailand will be the case study.