U.S. OPERATIONAL ACCESS IN THAILAND: HOW AND WHY IT HAS VARIED SINCE THE 1950S
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Authors
Bashaw, Owen E.
Subjects
Thailand
access
building partner capacity
security cooperation
access
building partner capacity
security cooperation
Advisors
Malley, Michael S.
Date of Issue
2023-09
Date
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
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Abstract
Despite the increasing range of U.S. military assets, ships need places to repair and refuel, planes need places to land, and ground forces need forward staging areas. Accordingly, the United States goes to great lengths to ensure that it develops access to partner nations that it can rely on in times of crisis. There is widespread understanding that access varies over time, even with close allies, but little literature about the causes of that variation. So, why does access vary? To answer this question, this thesis defines the scale of access by outlining five levels pertinent to U.S. military operations; hypothesizes that access is a function of prior agreements and threat perception; and tests those hypotheses in a case study of the U.S.–Thai alliance between 1954 and 2023. It finds that access has been mainly a function of threat perceptions—when U.S. and Thai perceptions converged during the 1950s and 1960s, access increased; when they diverged in later times, access declined. However, bilateral agreements from the earlier era sustained modest levels of access in later decades. These findings suggest U.S. engagement strategies should leverage prior agreements but will likely be constrained by current threat perceptions.
Type
Thesis
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Department
National Security Affairs (NSA)
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NPS Report Number
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Distribution Statement
Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.