Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:59:23.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hegemonic Distortions: The Securitisation of the Insurgency in Thailand's Deep South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2019

Nicole Jenne  and
Jun Yan Chang Open the ORCID record for Jun Yan Chang [Opens in a new window]
Nicole Jenne
Affiliation:
Institute of Political Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Jun Yan Chang
Affiliation:
RSIS-Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, Australia, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The conflict between the Thai state and the Malay-Muslim insurgency in the country's Deep South is one of Southeast Asia's most persistent internal security challenges. The start of the current period of violence dates back to the early 2000s, and since then, a significant number of studies exploring the renewed escalation have been published. In this study, we argue that existing scholarship has not adequately accounted for the external environment in which political decisions were taken on how to deal with the southern insurgency. We seek to show how the internationally dominant, hegemonic security agenda of so-called non-traditional security (NTS) influenced the Thai government's approach to the conflict. Building upon the Copenhagen School's securitisation theory, we show how the insurgency became securitised under the dominant NTS narrative, leading to the adoption of harsh measures and alienating discourses that triggered the escalation of violence that continues today. The specific NTS frameworks that ‘distorted’ the Thai state's approach of one that had been informed solely by local facts and conditions were those of anti-narcotics and Islamist terrorism, albeit in different ways. Based on the findings from the case study, the article concludes with a reflection on the role of the hegemonic NTS agenda and its implications for Southeast Asian politics and scholarship.

Keywords

ThailandDeep Southnon-traditional securitysecuritisation
Type
Article
Information
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , November 2019 , pp. 209 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abulof, Uriel. 2014. “Deep securitization and Israel's ‘Demographic Demon’.” International Political Sociology 84: 396–415.Google Scholar
Abuza, Zachary. 2009. Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand. Perspectives Series. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Abuza, Zachary. 2011. “Borderlands, terrorism, and insurgency in Southeast Asia.” In The Borderlands of Southeast Asia: Geopolitics, Terrorism, and Globalization, edited by Clad, James, McDonald, Sean, and Vaughn, Bruce, 89–106. Washington, DC: NDU Press.Google Scholar
Abuza, Zachary. 2014. Religion in the Southern Thailand conflict, The Interpreter, 10 October. Available at: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/religion-southern-thailand-conflict (accessed 3 August 2018).Google Scholar
Acharya, Amitav. 2009. Whose Ideas Matter? Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Alagappa, Muthiah, ed. 1995. Political Legitimacy in Southeast Asia: The Quest for Moral Authority. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Anwar, Dewi Fortuna. 1996. “Indonesia's strategic culture: Ketahanan Nasional, Wawasan Nusantara and Hankamrata.” Australia-Asia Papers No. 75.Google Scholar
Askew, Marc. 2007. “Thailand's recalcitrant Southern borderland: Insurgency, conspiracies and the disorderly state.” Asian Security 3(2): 99–120.Google Scholar
Askew, Marc. 2010. “Insurgency and the market for violence in Southern Thailand.” Asian Survey 50(6): 1107–1134.Google Scholar
Baldwin, David A. 1995. “Security studies and the end of the Cold War.” World Politics 48(1): 117–141.Google Scholar
Baldwin, David A. 1997. “The concept of security.” Review of International Studies 23(1): 5–26.Google Scholar
Ball, Desmond, and Nicholas, Farrelly. 2012. “Interpreting 10 years of violence in Thailand's Deep South.” Security Challenges 8(2): 1–18.Google Scholar
Balzacq, Thierry. 2005. “The three faces of securitization: Political agency, audience and context.” European Journal of International Relations 11(2): 171–201.Google Scholar
Balzacq, Thierry, Sarah, Léonard, and Jan, Ruzicka. 2016. “‘Securitization’ revisited: Theory and cases.” International Relations 30(4): 494–531.Google Scholar
Bangkok Post. 2014. Embracing Militias with Open Arms. 23 November. Available at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/print/444909/ (accessed 3 August 2018).Google Scholar
Bigo, Didier. 2002. “Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease.” Alternatives 27(1_suppl): 63–92.Google Scholar
Bilgin, Pinar. 2011. “The politics of studying securitization: The Copenhagen School in Turkey.” Security Dialogue 42(4–5): 399–412.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry, and Lene, Hansen. 2009. The Evolution of International Security Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry, and Ole, Wæver. 2009. “Macrosecuritisation and security constellations: Reconsidering scale in securitisation theory.” Review of International Studies 35(2): 253–276.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry, Ole, Wæver, and de Wilde, Jaap. 1998. Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Caballero-Anthony, Mely. 2010. “The new security agenda in Asia.” In The Routledge Handbook of Asian Security Studies, edited by Ganguly, Sumit, Scobell, Andrew, and Liow, Joseph, 311–325. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Caballero-Anthony, Mely. 2016. “Understanding non-traditional security.” In An Introduction to Non-Traditional Security Studies: A Transnational Approach, edited by Caballero-Anthony, Mely, 3–19. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Chang, Jun Yan. 2016. “Globalisation's impact on Navies in the Asia-Pacific: From the modern to the postmodern to the ‘Quatumodern’.” In Armed Forces for 2020 and Beyond: Roles | Tasks | Expectations, edited by Feichtinger, Walter and Hensellek, Benedict, 125–143. Research Report of the National Defence Academy 27/2015. Vienna: Austrian National Defence Academy.Google Scholar
Chang, Jun Yan. 2019. “Conscripting the audience: Singapore's successful securitisation of vulnerability.” In National Service in Singapore, edited by Ho, Shu Huang and Ong-Webb, Graham, 83–103. Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Channel News Asia. 2018. Philippines Summons US Envoy over Duterte ‘Threat’ Report, 23 February.Google Scholar
Chong, Alan. 2012. “Premodern Southeast Asia as a guide to international relations between peoples prowess and prestige in ‘Intersocietal Relations’ in the Sejarah Melayu.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 37(2): 87–105.Google Scholar
Connors, Michael. 2006a. “Thailand and the United States: Beyond hegemony.” In Bush and Asia: America's Evolving Relations with East Asia, edited by Beeson, Mark, 128–144. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Connors, Michael. 2006b. “War on terror and the Southern fire: How terrorism analysts get it wrong.” Critical Asian Studies 38(1): 151–175.Google Scholar
Crispin, Shawn. 2004. “Thailand's war zone.” Far-Eastern Economic Review 167(10).Google Scholar
Croft, Stuart. 2012. Securitizing Islam: Identity and the Search for Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Croissant, Aurel. 2005. “Unrest in South Thailand: Contours, causes, and consequences since 2001.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 27(1): 21–43.Google Scholar
Davis, Tony. 2006. Interview, Jane's Defense Weekly, 31 May.Google Scholar
Dewitt, David. 1994. “Common, comprehensive, and cooperative security.” The Pacific Review 7(1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Emmers, Ralf. 2003. “ASEAN and the securitization of transnational crime in Southeast Asia.” The Pacific Review 16: 419–438.Google Scholar
Emmers, Ralf, and Mely, Caballero-Anthony. 2006. “Introduction.” In Studying Non-Traditional Security in Asia: Trends and Issues, edited by Emmers, Ralf, Caballero-Anthony, Mely, and Acharya, Amitav, xiii–xix. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Academic.Google Scholar
Farrell, Tom. 2014. “Southern discomfort: Prospects for Thailand's Malay Muslim insurgency.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analysis 6(3): 4–10.Google Scholar
Febrica, Senia. 2010. “Securitizing terrorism in Southeast Asia: Accounting for the varying responses of Singapore and Indonesia.” Asian Survey 50(3): 569–590.Google Scholar
Floyd, Rita. 2010. Security and the Environment: Securitisation Theory and US Environmental Security Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Floyd, Rita. 2016. “Extraordinary or ordinary emergency measures: What, and who, defines the ‘success’ of securitization?” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 29 (2): 677–694.Google Scholar
Fullbrook, David. 2003. Thai war on drugs: Hollow victory, Asia Times, 17 December. Available at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EL17Ae05.html (accessed 3 August 2018).Google Scholar
Funston, John. 2008a. Conflict in Southern Thailand: Causes, Agents and Trajectory. ARC Federation Fellowship: Islam, Syari'ah and Governance, Background Paper No. 2. Melbourne: Melbourne Law School.Google Scholar
Funston, John. 2008b. Southern Thailand: The Dynamics of Conflict. Policy Studies 50. Washington, DC: East-West Center.Google Scholar
Gad, Ulrik Pram, and Petersen, Karen Lund. 2011. “Concepts of politics in securitization studies.” Security Dialogue 42(4–5): 315–328.Google Scholar
Gunaratna, Rohan, Arabinda, Acharya, and Sabrina, Chua. 2005. Conflict and Terrorism in Southern Thailand. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.Google Scholar
Gunaratna, Rohan, and Acharya, Arabinda. 2013. The Terrorist Threat from Thailand: Jihad or Quest for Justice? Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc.Google Scholar
Haacke, Jürgen, and Paul D., Williams. 2008. “Regional arrangements, securitization, and transnational security challenges: The African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations compared.” Security Studies 17(4): 775–809.Google Scholar
Hameiri, Shahar, and Lee, Jones. 2013. “The politics and governance of non-traditional security.” International Studies Quarterly 57(3): 462–473.Google Scholar
Hameiri, Shahar, and Lee, Jones. 2015. Governing Borderless Threats: Non-Traditional Security and the Politics of State Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harish, S.P., and Joseph, Liow. 2007. “The coup and the conflict in Southern Thailand.” Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 19(1): 161–184.Google Scholar
Harish, S.P. 2006. “Ethnic or religious cleavage? Investigating the nature of the conflict in Southern Thailand.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 28(1): 48–69.Google Scholar
Hathaway, Robert M., and Michael, Wills. 2013. “Introduction: New security challenges for a new century.” In New Security Challenges in Asia, edited by Wills, Michael and Hathaway, Robert M., 1–23. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.Google Scholar
Herschinger, Eva. 2011. Constructing Global Enemies: Hegemony and Identity in International Discourses on Terrorism and Drug Prohibition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
HRW. 2004. Thailand–Not Enough Graves: The War on Drugs, HIV/AIDS, and Violations of Human Rights. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/thailand0704/thailand0704.pdf.Google Scholar
HRW. 2007. No One Is Safe: Insurgent Attacks on Civilians in Thailand's Southern Border Provinces. Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/node/10780.Google Scholar
Huysmans, Jef. 2006. The Politics of Insecurity: Fear, Migration and Asylum in the EU. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Huysmans, Jef. 2011. “What's in an act? On security speech acts and little security nothings.” Security Dialogue 42(4–5): 371–383.Google Scholar
ICG. 2005. Southern Thailand: Insurgency, Not Jihad. Crisis Group Asia Report No. 98. Bangkok/Brussels: International Crisis Group.Google Scholar
ICG. 2012. Thailand: The Evolving Conflict in the South. Crisis Group Asia Report No. 241. Bangkok/Brussels: International Crisis Group.Google Scholar
ICG. 2015. Southern Thailand: Dialogue in Doubt. Crisis Group Asia Report No. 270. Brussels: International Crisis Group.Google Scholar
Jerryson, Michael. 2009. “Appropriating a space for violence: State Buddhism in Southern Thailand.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40(1): 33–57.Google Scholar
Jitpiromsri, Srisompob, and Sobhonvasu, Panyasak. 2006. “Unpacking Thailand's southern conflict: The poverty of structural explanations.” Critical Asian Studies 38(1): 95–117.Google Scholar
Jones, Lee. 2011. “Beyond securitization: Explaining the scope of security policy in Southeast Asia.” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 11(3): 403–432.Google Scholar
Jory, Patrick. 2007. “From ‘Melayu Patani’ to ‘Thai Muslim’: The spectre of ethnic identity in southern Thailand.” South East Asia Research 15(2): 255–279.Google Scholar
Kristensen, Peter Marcus. 2015. “International Relations in China and Europe: The case for interregional dialogue in a hegemonic discipline.” The Pacific Review 28(2): 161–187.Google Scholar
Levi, Margaret. 2004. “An analytic narrative approach to puzzles and problems.” In Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics, edited by Shapiro, Ian, Smith, Rogers M., and Masoud, Tarek E., 201–226. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Liow, Joseph. 2004. “The security situation in southern Thailand: Toward an understanding of domestic and international dimensions.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 27(6): 531–548.Google Scholar
Liow, Joseph. 2006. Muslim Resistance in Southern Thailand and Southern Philippines Religion, Ideology, and Politics. Policy Studies 24. Washington, DC: East-West Center.Google Scholar
Liow, Joseph. 2016. Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Liow, Joseph, and Don, Pathan. 2010. Confronting Ghosts: Thailand's Shapeless Southern Insurgency. Lowy Institute Paper Series No. 30. Double Bay: Lowy Institute. http://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/confronting-ghosts-thailands-shapeless-southern-insurgency.Google Scholar
Los Angeles Times. 2018. CIA's Legacy of Torture Lives on in Thailand. 23 April. Available at: http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=0a4c08b9-1f31-48ec-b9a7-9339273fd550 (accessed 3 August 2018).Google Scholar
Mak, J.N. 2006. “Securitizing piracy in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, the international maritime bureau and Singapore.” In Non-Traditional Security in Asia: Dilemmas in Securitization, edited by Caballero-Anthony, Mely, Emmers, Ralf and Acharya, Amitav, 66–92. Hampshire: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Marchand, Marianne H. 2017. “Crossing borders in North America after 9/11: ‘Regular’ Travellers’ narratives of securitisations and contestations.” Third World Quarterly 38(6): 1232–1248.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2006a. “Introduction: Rethinking Thailand's Southern violence.” Critical Asian Studies 38(1): 3–10.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2006b. “Thaksin and the resurgence of violence in the Thai South: Network monarchy strikes Back?” Critical Asian Studies 38(1): 39–71.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2007. Rethinking Thailand's Southern Violence. Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2008. Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2009. “Thai Buddhism, Thai Buddhists and the southern conflict.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40(1): 1–10.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2010a. “Autonomy for Southern Thailand: Thinking the unthinkable?” Pacific Affairs 83(2): 261–281.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan. 2010b. “Thailand's National Reconciliation Commission: A flawed response to the southern conflict.” Global Change, Peace & Security 22(1): 75–91.Google Scholar
McDonald, Matt. 2008. “Securitization and the construction of security.” European Journal of International Relations 14(4): 563–587.Google Scholar
McDonald, Matt. 2012. “The failed securitization of climate change in Australia.” Australian Journal of Political Science 47(4): 579–592.Google Scholar
Melvin, Neil J. 2007. “Conflict in southern Thailand: Islamism, violence and the state in the Patani Insurgency’.” SIPRI Policy Paper Series No. 20.Google Scholar
Peoples, Columba, and Nick, Vaughan-Williams. 2010. Critical Security Studies: An Introduction. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pouliot, Vincent. 2008. “The logic of practicality: A theory of practice of security communities.” International Organization 62(2): 257–288.Google Scholar
Salter, Mark B., and Can E., Mutlu. 2013. “Securitisation and Diego Garcia.” Review of International Studies 39(4): 815–834.Google Scholar
Storey, Ian. 2008a. “Securing Southeast Asia's sea lanes: A work in progress.” Asia Policy 6: 95–128.Google Scholar
Storey, Ian. 2008b. “Southern discomfort: Separatist conflict in the Kingdom of Thailand.” Asian Affairs: An American Review 35(1): 31–52.Google Scholar
Stritzel, Holger. 2014. Security in Translation: Securitization Theory and the Localization of Threat. London: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Stritzel, Holger, and Sean C., Chang. 2015. “Securitization and counter-Securitization in Afghanistan.” Security Dialogue 46(6): 548–567.Google Scholar
Tan, See Seng. 2002. “Human security: Discourse, statecraft, emancipation.” In The Human Face of Security: Asia-Pacific Perspectives, edited by Dickens, David, 30–43. Canberra: Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.Google Scholar
Tannenwald, Nina. 2015. “Process tracing and security studies.” Security Studies 24(2): 219–227.Google Scholar
Thanet, Aphornsuvan. 2006. Rebellion in Southern Thailand: Contending Histories. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
UCDP. 2018. Uppsala Conflict Data Program. UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia: Uppsala University. www.ucdp.uu.se (accessed 18 November 2018).Google Scholar
Ukrist, Pathmanand. 2006. “Thaksin's Achilles’ heel: The failure of hawkish approaches in the Thai South.” Critical Asian Studies 38(1): 73–93.Google Scholar
Wæver, Ole. 2012. “Aberystwyth, Paris, Copenhagen: The Europeanness of new ‘Schools’ of security theory in an American field.” In Thinking International Relations Differently, edited by Tickner, Arlene B. and Blaney, David L., 48–71. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Waldner, David. 2015. “Process tracing and qualitative causal inference.” Security Studies 24(2): 239–250.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Matt. 2003. From Marketplace to Battlefield: Counting the Costs of Thailand's Drug War. ICWA Letters. New Hampshire: ICWA.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Matt. 2009. “The USA, the war on terror, and the violence in southernmost Thailand.” In Imagined Land? State and Southern Violence in Thailand, edited by Satha-Anand, Chaiwat, 179–198. Tokyo: Research Institute for Language and Cultures of Asia and Africa.Google Scholar
Wolters, Oliver William. 1999. History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Erin. 2016. Think Tanks and Non-Traditional Security: Governance Entrepreneurs in Asia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar