In the commentary game we don’t always write our own headlines and sometimes the published headline isn’t quite right.
But there is no doubt that the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter presented one yesterday that caught my attention. It reads bluntly: “The danger of a Thai civil war”.
That is a sit up and take notice, slap you around the face with a leather glove, kind of headline. The full article is available here. Among other things this piece is veteran Australian correspondent Graeme Dobell’s take on the Wikileaks cables from Thailand. It is well worth a read.
On the same general topic, The Conversation has published a commentary where I reflect on the broader context of the Thai Wikileaks cables and their interpretation by Andrew McGregor Marshall in his “Thai Story”. I note that:
Since the initial tranches of Wikileaks cable material were published in 2010 one of the obvious limitations has been interpretative capacity. Unless an individual journalist or academic spends months devoted to the cables for a particular country or issue it is impossible to fully grasp the context and details.
I could have added that there are no short-cuts and this is not easy work. It takes time, and patience and commitment. Kudos to Andrew McGregor Marshall for investing so much. I am confident that his #thaistory will be read for many years to come.
For reference, the archive of the raw cables is available here.