Stockholm university
Stockholm Center for Global Asia

Rising Nationalism and the Derailment of Welfare Reforms in Thailand

Seminar

Date: Thursday 4 December 2025

Time: 14.00 – 15.30

Location: Room C312, Stockholm Center for Global Asia, Stockholm University

Conservative elites, nationalist diversion, and the derailment of welfare reform: Thai–Cambodian tensions and the road to the 2026 elections. SPEAKER: Sustarum Thammaboosadee, Associate Professor of International Relations, Thammasat University.

Please register before December 3, 2025

This seminar explores how conservative political elites strategically leveraged escalating Thai–Cambodian border tensions in early 2025 to disrupt progressive welfare reform and reshape Thailand’s political landscape ahead of the 2026 general elections. It will analyse how nationalist discourse displaced welfare debates, reframed social policy as a security issue, and weakened reform coalitions following the Constitutional Court’s removal of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
 
The discussion highlights broader implications for democratic consolidation, social policy development, and the instrumentalisation of geopolitical conflict in contemporary Thai politics.
 
Sustarum Thammaboosadee is Associate Professor of International Relations at the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University. His research focuses on the precariat, welfare state development, and social policy transformation in Thailand. He is the author of For Every Seedling of Dreams and director of the Interdisciplinary Specialized Research Center for Welfare State and Justice Studies. He has held research fellowships across leading Nordic universities and currently serves on Thailand’s Social Security Board (2024–2026), and is a regular public commentator, contributing the weekly column “ฝนไม่ถึงดิน” (Rain That Never Reaches the Ground) to Matichon Weekly.

Theme
Society, Democracy and Welfare - Theme page

Last updated: November 26, 2025

Source: SCGA

eventNewsArticle

standard-article

true

{
  "dimensions": [
    {
      "id": "department.categorydimension.subject",
      "name": "Global categories",
      "enumerable": true,
      "entities": [],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "department.categorydimension.tag.Keywords",
      "name": "Keywords",
      "enumerable": false,
      "entities": [],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "department.categorydimension.tag.Person",
      "name": "Person",
      "enumerable": false,
      "entities": [],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "department.categorydimension.tag.Tag",
      "name": "Tag",
      "enumerable": false,
      "entities": [],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "webb2021.categorydimension.Category.Events",
      "name": "Event Category (Webb 2021)",
      "enumerable": true,
      "entities": [
        {
          "id": "webb2021.categorydimension.Category.Events.research",
          "name": "Research",
          "entities": [],
          "attributes": [],
          "childrenOmitted": false,
          "localizations": {}
        }
      ],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "webb2021.categorydimension.Label",
      "name": "Etiketter (Webb 2021)",
      "enumerable": true,
      "entities": [],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "webb2021.categorydimension.Label.en",
      "name": "Labels (Webb 2021)",
      "enumerable": true,
      "entities": [
        {
          "id": "webb2021.categorydimension.Label.en.samhalle",
          "name": "Society, Democracy and Welfare",
          "entities": [],
          "attributes": [],
          "childrenOmitted": false,
          "localizations": {}
        }
      ],
      "localizations": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "webb2021.categorydimension.Keyword",
      "name": "Keywords (Webb 2021)",
      "enumerable": false,
      "entities": [],
      "localizations": {}
    }
  ]
}