Chambers: The Challenges for Thailand’s Military

New Mandala has posted a guest article by Paul Chambers, a senior research fellow at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and an expert on civil-military relations in southeast Asia, about the Thai military and its upcoming challenges. Key excerpt:

In the aftermath of the May 19 victory over the Red Shirts and Thaksin, Thailand’s military officer corps appears united above, but fissured below. (...) But the perils facing the Queen's Guard will be less likely to arise from Thailand’s elected civilian governments given their temporary and frail character—especially with Thaksin still on the run. Rather, the clique’s greatest challenge will be to diminish internal military resentment from junior officers and thus ensure its enhanced control over the armed forces. If Prem and Surayud successfully balance various military classes to perpetuate Queen’s Guard military control, then some semblance of unity within an arch-royalist armed forces may well persevere. Yet if such balancing is not undertaken or proves unsuccessful, then internal military divisions could become increasingly violent.

"The challenges for Thailand’s arch-royalist military", by Paul Chambers, New Mandala, June 9, 2010

Chambers give a very detailed account into the structure of the army's current top command line, its origin and what lies ahead. I recommend you to read it.