Thitinan Pongsudhirak
Professor, Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science, is a senior fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies.
Jun 12, 2026
At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed America’s Asian allies to spend 3.5% of their GDP on defense, fueling anxiety across the region and beyond. His brow-beating call to arms may well bring about a regional defense build-up on a scale unseen since the Cold War’s end.
