Preface

Summary

Thailand's recent political turbulence was closely monitored by the National Thai Studies Centre (NTSC) in a series of seminars and annual Thailand Update Conferences in 2006 (held only ten days after the 19 September military coup) and 2007. This volume includes selected presentations from these events.

The 2006 and 2007 Updates were held at the Australian National University on 29 September and 31 August respectively. The NTSC is most grateful for assistance in presenting these conferences. The Australia-Thailand Institute (ATI) provided generous support, both for administrative costs and assistance with travel funds for keynote speakers. It also provided funding for seminars on governance in Thailand, which enabled visits by Professors Vitit Muntarbhorn and Chaiwat Satha-Anand in August 2007 just prior to the Update. The Centre for Democratic Institutions at ANU, and Thammasat University funded travel for Thailand-based speakers in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

The NTSC is most grateful for all this support, and additional assistance provided during this time by the Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra. Without this, and ongoing support from ANU, it would not have been possible to maintain Centre activities.

Political unrest in Thailand made this time exceptionally busy for the NTSC. This volume reflects only a part of that, and reports of other events may be found on the website <www.anu.edu/thaionline>. I was at that time executive director of the centre, and as usual received invaluable assistance from numerous colleagues. NTSC staff members Jason Hall, Elizabeth Nunrom and David Hunter all made major contributions. Julian Kusa provided valuable editorial advice. Ajarn Chintana Sandilands was, as always, tireless in her contribution to NTSC activities. A special thank you to Sarah Bishop who had the main burden of preparing this manuscript, and provided skilled editorial assistance.

Roslina Johari provided helpful advice on the book cover, and Agron Dragaj was most generous in making photographs available for this.

Finally, a warm thanks to all contributors. The NTSC is most grateful for their outstanding expertise, and generosity in contributing to the centre' seminars and updates.