Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs

It says something profound about the region that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s first international trips as state counsellor and foreign minister have required photo ops with Southeast Asian dictators.

First up, she went to Vientiane for meetings hosted by the Lao communist party. Now she has recently returned from Thailand, where that country’s military rulers offered their gilded hospitality to Southeast Asia’s best-recognised democracy activist.

Read ‘Keeping friends close, Thailand closer’ by Nicholas Farrelly published in the Myanmar Times.