Thailand Dreams Big: Thaksin Aims to Conquer World with Soft Power
Soft power: the promise of influence without the unsavory mechanics of coercion. The seductive notion that culture can be a geopolitical force multiplier. And in Thailand, it’s being dusted off, retooled, and relaunched under the auspices of a familiar face: Thaksin Shinawatra. The former prime minister, alongside his daughter, the newly appointed Culture Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, recently unveiled the ThaiWORKS platform at the SPLASH — Soft Power Forum 2025, an initiative poised to revamp his two-decade-old Otop (One Tambon, One Product) program.
The pitch? To catapult Thai creative industries onto the world stage, turning batik scarves and luk thung music into global exports. But behind the polished presentations and soaring rhetoric lies a far more intricate reality, one that reveals the inherent contradictions of converting cultural capital into tangible power. Thaksin envisions flagship stores from Fifth Avenue to the Champs-Élysées, brimming with Thai artisanal goods, a world where “Brand Thailand” rivals “Made in Italy.”
“Twenty years ago, I founded a political party with the vision: Think new, act new, eyes on the stars, feet on the ground,” he said. “Today, we face an economic crisis because we remain stuck in outdated paradigms. We must dream big but stay rooted. We need to adapt to a broader world while maintaining strong cultural foundations.'
As the Bangkok Post reports, this initiative builds upon the original Otop, itself inspired by Japan’s village-based production system. Thaksin now proposes to modernize it, fusing design, technology, and global marketing savvy.
The central question remains: can a government-orchestrated endeavor truly channel the unruly dynamism of a culture, or will it devolve into a stilted, top-down simulacrum? The Otop program’s earlier success, swelling from 2 billion baht in sales to over 40 billion baht, hints at possibility. Yet, the landscape has fundamentally shifted since its inception in 2003. We now live in a world dominated by algorithm-driven cultural flows, a world Otop was not built to navigate.
Consider the ascendance of K-Pop. Its global tsunami wasn’t solely the product of government directives, but the spontaneous eruption of a distinct sound and aesthetic that resonated transnationally. While South Korea invested strategically in its cultural sector, its triumph hinged on granting its artists creative latitude. As Professor Hye-Kyung Lee at King’s College London has argued, the government’s role was less about dictating content and more about creating a fertile ecosystem for talent to flourish, a hands-off approach that fostered authenticity and innovation.
The challenge for Thailand, and for Thaksin’s ThaiWORKS, lies in deftly managing this delicate balance between state patronage and artistic independence. One persistent obstacle for local brands vying for global recognition is their scale. They’re often simply too small. A potential remedy lies in co-branding with established Thai brands, providing smaller producers with the infrastructure and distribution networks to expand. Thaksin has reportedly even tapped branding luminary Peter Arnell for consultation, a move that signals both ambition and a willingness to learn from established players.
The broader issue here isn’t merely about Thai crafts; it’s about the inherent asymmetry embedded within the very concept of soft power. Can it ever truly be "soft” when wielded by a state apparatus? The allure of cultural exports often obscures the underlying power dynamics, the ways in which cultural influence can be subtly deployed for political ends. Joseph Nye, the originator of the term “soft power,” himself acknowledged its limitations, observing that it is most effective when it reinforces existing hard power structures, a complement rather than a replacement. This implies that soft power ultimately amplifies existing inequalities.
Thailand’s renewed embrace of soft power, therefore, must be understood within the context of its complex political history, its regional aspirations, and the constantly evolving power dynamics of Southeast Asia. While the ThaiWORKS initiative may well deliver economic gains to local artisans, its ultimate legacy will hinge on its capacity to forge genuine connections with global audiences, and on its commitment to empower, rather than merely direct, its creative community. The ultimate litmus test? Whether ThaiWORKS cultivates cultural exchange or risks sliding into cultural imposition. The world is littered with examples of the latter.
