Thai Foreign Policy amid the US-China Competition of Vaccine Diplomacy between 2020 and 2021

Abstract

This research seeks to analyze Thai foreign policy’s posture toward the United States and China amid the competition of vaccine diplomacy in the Southeast Asia region between 2020 and 2021. This research focuses on the conduct of Thai foreign policy by applying ‘hedging strategy’ as a main theoretical framework in explaining how Thailand managed to diversify its COVID-19 vaccine portfolios, in order to have a clearer understanding of whether Bangkok can perform a well-crafted hedging strategy or Thai’s traditional diplomacy has lost ground in its default setting. This research has been done by examining official documents from the Thai government, the People’s Republic of China government, and the United States government. These documents include official statements and speeches from all governments and high-level officials concerned. This research extracts empirical information from reputable media and op-ed articles in order to analyze the background and motives of Thai’s foreign policy-making at a particular time. By analyzing Thai foreign policy throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, this reveals that Thailand has been drawn into a highly dependent relationship with China and to the extent created an inflexible diplomacy and imbalance stance towards the major powers.