Publication

This report takes stock of the dubious progress Thailand has made in implementing security sector reforms (SSR) since the country’s 2014 military coup. More specifically, the text’s author reviews Thailand’s security sector, its main stakeholders, and how the latter have failed to adopt SSR measures that privilege the rule of law under elected civilian control. Because of this failure, the country’s leaders have enacted SSR ‘deforms’ instead of reforms, and have made sure that things will only reverse themselves when 1) the junta's image becomes irretrievably tarnished; 2) traditional institutions abandon their support of military rule; and 3) the Thai people actually unite to insist on genuine SSR.