Paper short abstract:

The paper deals with Thailand's "Africa Initiative" and the policy aspirations behind it. It will critically look at whether or not these differ from other Asian actors' approaches and how much diversification we can detect within the South-South context of relations, rather dependencies.

Paper long abstract:

The paper offers a discussion over Thailand's foreign policy aspirations and actions towards the African continent within a larger framework of South-South linkages and dependencies. Focal attention will be paid to the Thai perspective, in particular what is behind the "Thai-Africa Initiative" of 2013, which is part of the Royal Thai Government's "Look West Policy". The paper will critically look at similarities and differences with other Asian actors' policies and their engagements with Africa. The analysis is based on recent field research in Bangkok, as well as numerous conference debates over the Afro-Asian context of Bandung. A rarely investigated Afro-Asian linkage will be revealed in light of the "new political economy of Afro-Asian ties".