Research On Thailand’s Sub-regional Cooperation Strategy From The Perspective Of Geopolitical Economy

Thailand has a geo-strategic position in Southeast Asia that connects the north and the south and directly connects the east Pacific and the west Indian Ocean.Therefore,Thailand intends to drive the development of the country’s foreign strategy with geography,and to realize the overall regional strategy integration centered on Thailand’s cross-border sub-regional cooperation with its neighboring countries.Therefore,this paper takes the cross-border sub-regional cooperation between Thailand and its neighboring countries as the research object,adopts historical sorting and literature analysis methods,and conducts a systematic geopolitical and economic analysis of the sub-regional cooperation strategy formed by Thailand after the Cold War.In order to correctly grasp the development trend of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy,this paper can provide reflections for my country’s regional cooperation policy in the region.This paper studies the development and changes of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy from the historical and geographical dimensions of time and space,and from the interaction of production(wealth)and security(power)in the subregional geographic space.First,this paper attempts to construct an analytical framework of geopolitical economy,using the concepts of production(wealth),security(power),conflict,and cooperation in geopolitical economy to explain Thailand’s behavioral motivations within the subregional geographic space.Secondly,it sorts out the origin,formation,development and policy implementation of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy,also reviews and summarizes the goals,paths,effects and problems of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy.Thirdly,it proposes policy thinking on the prospect of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy and the alignment of China-Thailand regional cooperation strategies.Geographical elements are the basic conditions for the formation of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy,and the interaction between geography and country has provided assistance for the emergence of the strategy.The development and change of Thailand’s sub-regional cooperation strategy stems from the interaction of the country’s production,security and geopolitical economy conflicts and cooperation.From the perspective of production,the lack of production materials and labor,market demand and industrial transformation have become the driving forces for the rise of the strategy;from the perspective of security,the game of great powers and the challenges of non-traditional security issues from neighboring countries have become the driving force for strategic development and changes.The ups and downs of geopolitical and economic conflicts and cooperation continue to affect the country’s production and security,and affect the country’s foreign strategic development.As a medium power in the region,Thailand has long had the geopolitical ambition to become the leader of regional subsystems.However,subject to its status as a small country in the international system,Thailand can only adopt this type of geoeconomic means with sub-regional cooperation as the main form to achieve its geopolitical goal of becoming a regional hub country.