This chapter traces trajectories of counterrevolutions following six revolutions, which exhibit the full range of counterrevolutionary outcomes and offer useful comparisons to Egypt. First, it examines two revolutions that never experienced counterrevolutions: Tunisia’s and Libya’s 2011 revolutions. Both occurred in the same Arab Spring wave as Egypt’s revolution, but in Tunisia the new government faced a military whose interests were not deeply threatened by civilian rule and in Libya the coercive capacity of the former regime was largely destroyed in the brief civil war. Next, it examines two Latin American revolutions that demonstrate the two ways in which revolutionaries can maintain their capacity and defeat counterrevolutionary threats. Following Cuba’s 1959 revolution, Fidel Castro’s regime put down multiple counterrevolutions using its loyal revolutionary army. In Venezuela, following the 1958 democratic revolution, the government enjoyed none of these coercive resources, yet managed to thwart multiple counterrevolutionary coup attempts through a preservation of revolutionary unity and a return to mass mobilization. Finally, in two cases that are otherwise quite different to Egypt – Thailand’s 1973 democratic uprising and Hungary’s 1919 communist revolution – a very similar set of mechanisms undermined the capacity of the new governments and created opportunities for counterrevolutionaries to return to power.

Over the last few decades, the concept of Indigeneity has gained traction in Cambodia and Thailand, partially because of its potential to assist Indigenous Peoples in gaining more control over contested lands and forests. The Cambodian government recognizes Indigenous Peoples and their communal land titles. Since 2009, when a sub-decree was issued for registering Indigenous communities and their lands, dozens of villages in northeastern Cambodia have obtained communal land titles. The government of Thailand, however, does not officially recognize the existence of Indigenous Peoples. Nevertheless, the concept of Indigenous Peoples is gaining support in Thailand. Over the last few years, Indigenous activists in both countries have increasingly engaged in electoral politics. The Cambodia Indigenous Peoples’ Democracy Party (CIPDP) contested the commune and national elections of 2017 and 2018, respectively. In Thailand, Indigenous activists have also become more involved in electoral politics, especially during the 2019 national elections, when the first ethnic Hmong person was elected to Parliament. This Indigenous engagement in electoral politics represents a new strategy to gain more cultural and language rights at the legislative level, as well as tenure over land and other natural resources.

This chapter analyses the international science collaboration between scientists in Chulalongkorn University (CU) in Bangkok and scientists and managers from Kawasaki Heavy Industry (KHI), Japan. The Chapter argues, first, that the integrity of national regulations is violated through international science collaborations, including by the governments whose regulations are violated. As there is no credible regulatory mandate on a global level, such violations receive little attention. Second, in contrast with notions of science collaboration that view collaboration as a bond between two or more partners to attain a shared goal by pooling resources, the chapter’s examination of the collaborative project shows that its goals are shared in different, often incompatible ways. And, third, observing how regulation in international science collaboration is treated as a form of ‘regulatory capital’, the chapter argues that international collaboration and competition form part of the same process. This study of regulatory capital explains why the examination of science collaborations does not just pertain to exchanges of scientific know-how and technological expertise; it also requires the investigation of the ways in which socio-economic, political and regulatory conditions enable available resources to be used to satisfy a range of goals, many of which are mutually incompatible.

Chapter 8 asks how various forms of regulatory brokerage (informal; with state-support; deregulation; international; and, global) are interrelated, and how they have emerged across time in the field of regenerative medicine. A distinction between opportunistic (profiting from discrepancies between jurisdictions to forge collaborations) and active forms of regulatory brokerage (involving activities directed at the creation of regulations) helps to show how awareness of regulation as capital has spread. Extending from individual science-entrepreneurs to larger organisations, including universities, companies, state institutions and international organisations, regulatory brokerage has become part of the entrepreneurial culture of science management. To remain competitive, countries strategically follow the regulatory reforms of competitors, culminating in a cascade of regulatory adjustments and accompanied by the proliferation of regulatory violence. National discussions on regulatory trends in regenerative medicine, suggest that, though differently expressed, competitive desire tends to be an important driver of regulatory reform. But, at the same time, in some countries trends emerge that do not centre on competitive desire but on solidarity and concern for care.

One endearing image of the Thai-American Cold War diplomacy features an image of two ‘kings’ – Bhumibol Adulyadej, the king of Thailand, and Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, on the set of the movie musical G.I. Blues. The meeting took place during King Bhumibol’s state visit to the United States in 1960. His stopover in California was often described as an extended family holiday, therefore being denied its significance as an ingenious diplomatic spectacle. It was this image of the two kings inside the soundstage of Paramount Studios that helped to secure Thailand’s diplomatic allegiance and the future of its monarchy. This chapter traces historical accounts and different perspectives presented in the visual documents of the royal tour of the United States. It focuses on an image captured by a Hollywood photographer, Nat Dallinger, to illustrate how the Thai-US post-war diplomatic event relied on the Hollywood’s ‘dream machine’ to establish itself as an epicentre of goodwill, prosperity, and power. The chapter also proposes that the 1960 diplomatic event, despite its internationalist outlook, was meant for the Thai audience, and its image of diplomacy formulated a ‘mirror stage’ of the Thailand’s post–Second World War identity.

This chapter explores the impact of conflict on the issue of statelessness in Asia using a case study centred on the Kuomingtang (KMT) soldiers and their descendants in northern Thailand. The case study examines the historical background of the KMT Secret Army and conducts legal and policy analysis on relevant countries including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (RoC) and Thailand. These analyses shed light on how the group became stateless. The chapter scrutinizes the nationality laws of each country linked to the case study and the practical implementation of these laws and offers observations on the statelessness phenomenon. The case study demonstrates that violent conflicts may lead to de jure statelessness or place people at risk of statelessness due to the loss of a sense of national belonging and legal identity documents as by-products of violent conflict; that (re)gaining citizenship of a country might not be easy as relevant laws change and the operation of laws become too difficult for vulnerable groups to manage; and that the long-lasting political consequences of conflict continue to influence state practice in the case of both PRC and RoC, regardless of the group’s rights under their respective nationality laws.

Childhood statelessness is an urgent global human rights issue. Yet, there is limited ethnographic data on the everyday and varied experiences of stateless children and youth, whose representations in mainstream media and campaign materials tend to transmute them into generalized subjects with an ostensibly universal experience of total abjection. Drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in northern Thailand, this chapter examines the process of ‘learning to be stateless’ among Shan youth participants and the impact of statelessness during their various life stages. The chapter argues that statelessness is not necessarily a fully and actively internalized status since birth but a dynamic condition that constantly undergoes re-interpretation by the affected youth at punctuated moments and at various life stages. By examining the contemporary regime of statelessness in a country such as Thailand, where stateless persons have access to certain rights as children but not as adults, this chapter calls attention to the intersection of life stages and statelessness and the complex ways in which such regimes of simultaneous inclusion and exclusion place the emotional and practical burdens on stateless persons as they transition from childhood into adolescence and adulthood.

In June 2020, the largest democracy movement in a generation emerged in Thailand. The movement began with three demands: the current PM must resign, a new constitution must be drafted, and the state must stop threatening dissidents. In August 2020, a fourth demand was added: the monarchy must be reformed. This demand is where the transformative power of the movement came from, but also led to a swift crackdown in the form of police violence and prosecutions. This may appear to be a particularly egregious illustration of the rule-by-law regimes favored by autocrats, but close examination indicates that the law is being used to criminalize peaceful dissent and the mere questioning of how power is exercised. By examining several key cases, this chapter shows how the Thai regime aims to reshape both the rule of law and the polity through the arbitrary exercise of repressive power.

In this chapter, the focus shifts to how language policies are enforced, a term which I use instead of the more traditional ‘implementation’ to highlight the need to focus on action in specific policy contexts and accept the messiness and asymmetry inherent to such a focus. I argue in particular for greater attention to how policies impact the individual by codifying emotional responses and structuring the linguistic habitus. The case study looks at how English language learning is enforced as a moral imperative in Thai mass media through emotive references to the English Proficiency Index published annually by Education First.

Chapter 5 turns to attempts by French missionaries and envoys to convert the ruler of the most powerful state in Southeast Asia, King Narai of Ayutthaya, in the 1680s. It first lays out the setting into which these proselytisers arrived, playing particularly close attention to the elevation of the king in both divinised and righteous modes and his relationship with the sangha. It then shows how the commercial and administrative functioning of the kingdom pulled in sources of outside strength, which promoted the relevance of religious diplomacy. In the 1680s, a Greek adventurer, Constantine Phaulkon, became the most powerful officer at court, and he fashioned an image to the French of a ruler ripe for conversion, giving rise to a series of embassies received in Versailles and Ayutthaya. The French sought to enhance their prestige through the use of astronomical–astrological science and had a chance at a healing miracle in the 1660s. If this failed the French could take comfort from the fact that Narai was somewhat restless within his ceremonialised role, had tense relations with the Buddhist monkhood, was a cosmopolitan attracted to French culture, and was concerned to maintain the good will of Louis XIV. Some even portrayed him (mistakenly) as moving towards deism.

This chapter revisits the efforts mostly spearheaded by ASEAN to bring the Third Indochina War to an end. As ASEAN is the sum of its parts, the chapter describes the perspectives of the various ASEAN member states as well as how they arrived at a collective decision.