SUMMARY
Thailand has experienced several periods of political unrest since the 20th century. Nevertheless, violence in the southern Patani region started to escalate in the early 2000s and has drawn both national and international attention. This is mainly due to violent fighting between the Government of Thailand and Patani Insurgents. The rebels have indeed increased the scale of their operations against the government, as well as against civilians; whereas Thai authorities have often handled such instability in a brutal way, only managing to flare up even more tensions. Although originating from more historical secessionist sentiments, this phase of violence has a more religious undertone. This is mainly explained by ethno-national and religious identities overlapping, the insurgents increasingly embracing Jihadist ideology, and a shifting rhetoric such as Thai authorities further emphasizing Buddhism as a part of Thai identity.
Since 1989, Thailand has experienced the interstate, intrastate and one-sided categories of organized violence, as defined by UCDP.
2025
The level of violence in Thailand increased in 2025, breaking the downwards trend of recent years. The uptick in violence was driven by the interstate conflict between the Thai government and the government of Cambodia (Kampuchea), a conflict that resurged during the second half of 2025. The clashes occurred along the Cambodian-Thai border, with two primary episodes of violence in July and December respectively. Peace talks between the two states took place after both conflict episodes.The first round of talks resulted in a peace agreement, the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord, signed in October. This was, however, broken in December when clashes once more broke out along the border. The fighting was halted when the countries agreed to a ceasefire on the 27th of December. Aside from the Thailand-Cambodia conflict, the violence in the southern provinces persisted in 2025 as well. The conflict in the Patani region between the Patani Insurgents and the Thai government remained at similar levels as the previous year. One-sided violence was recorded, perpetrated by the Patani insurgents in the southern provinces, and remains at relatively low levels. Non-state violence remains absent.
1989 – 2024
Thailand has experienced quite diverse trends in terms of organized violence since 1989. In fact, after a higher number of fatalities in 1989, the level of violence remained very low for roughly a decade. That early spike was mainly due to state-based violence originating in neighboring Myanmar. In 1989, the territorial conflict over the Karen area in eastern Myanmar, which pitted the government of Myanmar against the separatist rebel group KNU, saw heavy fighting both near, and on, the border with Thailand. Thus, the violence unsurprisingly spilled over into Thailand at several occasions. The conflict did not seem to directly involve Thai parties, although both sides have accused the Thai government of supporting the other conflict party at different times.
Similarly, violence in the state based conflict between the government of Cambodia (Kampuchea) and the Khmer Rouge (KR) spilled over into Thai territory at a few occasions in the 1980s and 1990s.
While non-state violence has been relatively uncommon in Thailand since 1989, the non-state fatalities in Thailand consists of the conflicts between MTA (Mong Tai Army) and UWSA (United Wa State Army), as well as between DKBA and KNU 1991-1996. Both these conflicts involved Myanmar based groups along the eastern Myanmar border. The former over opium rich territory by the Thai-Myanmar border, and the latter clashes after DKBA became a breakaway faction of KNU and took part in offensives against KNU together with the Myanmar government forces. Thus, all recorded fatalities on Thai territory took place on, or nearby, the border.
After a calmer period during the 1990s, both state-based conflict and one-sided violence started to increase again around 2001. Such a trend shift coincided with five coordinated attacks orchestrated by Patani rebels, marking a resurgence of secessionist violence in the southern provinces. As a result, the conflict between the Government of Thailand and Patani Insurgents dramatically escalated in 2004 and reached a peak in terms of fatalities in 2006, marking the bloodiest stage of the insurgency.
An army coup in September 2006 led to the institution of a civilian-led government and the appointment of Surayud Chulanont as interim prime minister by the military junta. During his term, Chulanont tried to find middle ground with the insurgents by proposing a special development zone incorporating the Patani region, highlighting the possibility of establishing sharia law among southern Muslim and holding out prospects of talks. However, the insurgents continued their violent campaign in 2007, with only a slight decrease in the number of fatalities, most of which were the result of one-sided violence.
The following year, violence started to decrease, with both state-based and one-sided violence fluctuating around the same level until 2013. Since then, the Government of Thailand and Patani insurgents have periodically been involved in formal and informal peace talks. Violence has during this time remained at a relatively low level, although occasional attacks and a slow-moving peace process still suggest that the armed struggle is far from a resolution. This pattern continued in 2024, as peace talks resumed in February but failed to produce any agreement.
Pre-1989 conflicts
UCDP has also recorded several state-based armed conflicts involving Thailand in the period 1946-1988.
Even though the king remained head of state, since the abolishment of absolute monarchy in 1932 governance in the country has largely been characterized by military interventions. Most of these coups – successful or failed – have seen a limited use of force, but fighting between the government and a military faction from the naval forces led to an intrastate conflict over government power in 1951.
During 1974–1982, the intrastate conflict over government) continued, but with a different opponent: the communist CPT. The CPT had originally formed during the Second World War as a local branch of the Chinese Communist Party, but only started to prepare for armed struggle in the early 1960s. During the conflict, the CPT was active in two different parts of the country; in the very north and in the very south near the border to Malaysia. In both areas, the group recruited among ethnic minorities and it upheld cross-border cooperation with communist forces in neighboring Laos and the CPM (Communist Party of Malaysia) respectively.
Furthermore, Thailand fought three interstate conflicts between 1946 and 1988. They were all linked to border disputes with neighboring countries, aggravated by ideological differences and refugee flows caused by intrastate conflicts. The first conflict was fought against the French colonial administration of Indochine in 1946: this was due to Thai demands over several territories located at the border between the two countries. Subsequently, due the same motive, Thailand was involved in a territorial conflict with Cambodia in 1966 and then again in 1977-78, as well as with Laos in 1988. These armed confrontations were caused by disputes over the borders between the countries, which had been marked decades earlier by French surveyors that at times ignored the already-agreed ownership of the territories. Finally, insurgents from surrounding countries have also regularly fled across the border and received tacit support from the Thai government.
