BOOK REVIEW: Infiltrating Society: The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs

By Puangthong Pawapakan. ISEAS Publishing, Singapore. Soft cover, 181 pp with bibliography and index

It has long been axiomatic that Thailand’s military has largely run the country between desultory bouts of democracy since 1932, when the first coup ended the reign of King Prajadhipok, writing the finish to nearly 800 years of absolute monarchy under the Siamese kings. But that conjures an image of the generals marching in periodically to run affairs u…