Week 3- Post - Intents & Motives in the News

Professor Jackson began his soliloquy this past week by breaking down the terms ideas, interests, motives, and intents. We also discussed in our live session the difference between motives and intent. Professor Jackson defined motive as a “subjective state of mind, what you are thinking at a particular moment” and he defined intent as an “action arises not from internal process but from a collective, outside negotiation”. Jason also explained the differences between the two terms during our live session when he said to think of motives as internal and intent as public justification. Although I am still attempting to fully understand the difference between the two, I think it is interesting to keep exploring them further. Sam S. also explored these ideas in his blog post titled “Motive and Intent” and I think he also did a nice job of clearly laying out the differences.

With this understanding, what are the motives and intents behind Thailand’s military in the recent coup that is currently taking place. Thailand declared martial law on Tuesday after the continuous escalation of politics and unrest with the public. Although martial law has been declared before in Thailand, what are the current motives and intents behind the military’s decision? What do they expect as the end result of the coup? How will this affect the international world? To me, it appears that the intention of the military is to establish their power and comes as a result of the external environment, perhaps not just an internal decision. Although it is difficult to truly understand what a particular actor/state is thinking, we can observe from their actions. It will be interesting to watch how this situation continues to play out over the next couple of days.

For more information about the coup/declaration of martial law: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/05/20/meet_the_law_at_the_heart_of_thailand_s_pseudo_coup