The Bangkok Podcast | Expat Life In Thailand Via Expats From Canada & America

Greg interviews Dominic Faulder, associate editor at Nikkei Asia, long-time journalist in Southeast Asia and observer of the political and diplomatic machinations of Myanmar, and Thailand and Vietnam over the past 40 years.  The main thesis of the episode is this: How should a country such as Thailand respond when its neighbor Myanmar is in the midst of a destabilizing civil war? Dominic begins by pointing out what’s different about the current situation compared with events in its turbulent past. Myanmar has suffered various military coups, but traditionally the opposition to those coups has been splintered and factionalized. However, after the most recent 2021 military takeover, opposition groups unified, plunging the country into a genuine civil war.  So what does this mean for Thailand? According to Dominic, the long jungle border between the two countries is essentially impossible to police, opening up the real possibility of a massive refugee crisis in Thailand. In the long run, the military cannot succ