Book launch of “Thailand: Shifting Ground Between the US and a Rising China” – 29/11/17 – Bangkok FCC

Book Launch

Thailand: Shifting Ground Between the US and a Rising China – Ben Zawacki (Zed Books, Asian Arguments series)

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on 29 November 2017 at 7pm.

The book was published last month by Zed Books and the University of Chicago Press (https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/thailand/), and has been endorsed by the New York Times, Harvard University, Time, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Asia Times.

I wrote the book between late 2013 and early 2017, part of which as a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.  Previously, having lived in Southeast Asia for fifteen years, I held positions or consultancies with The Elders, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, and the UN Refugee Agency.

The book incorporates interviews with more than 90 persons, including four Thai prime ministers and seven foreign ministers, as well as other senior US and Thai policy-makers, politicians, ambassadors, and military officers.  In August 2015 I was granted a rare and extensive interview abroad with deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra.  Various journalists, academics, and long-time “friends of Thailand” rounded out the research, for a book described by the New York Times as a “well-informed analysis of a critical moment”.

Additional details regarding the launch can be found on the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand’s website (https://www.fccthai.com/items/2281.html).  The club is located on the penthouse floor of the Maneeya Building, which is connected to the BTS Skytrain’s Chitlom station.  As this event is open to the public, it is recommended that a seat be booked in advance by calling the club at +66 2 652 0580.