Thaksin’s own attitude to the conflict has been difficult to pin down; since leaving Thailand in 2008 his behavior has become ever more mercurial, and in a recent book-length interview with American journalist Tom Plate, Thaksin sought to blame Malaysia for the deaths of 78 unarmed protestors at Tak Bai in October 2004. But despite flirting intermittently with bizarre conspiracy theories, Thaksin has also apparently decided that helping to find a solution to the violent conflict that has claimed so many lives could rehabilitate his image and prepare the ground for his eventual return to Thailand. Some of those criticizing the Kuala Lumpur peace talks are primarily animated by deep misgivings about Thaksin’s role in the process. It is certainly true that Thaksin—whose heavy handed actions in 2004-05 were so incendiary—seems a most unlikely peace-maker. But to write off the negotiators as ‘Team Thaksin’ would be unduly simplistic; breakthroughs in apparently intractable conflicts may sometimes be made by politicians driven by extraordinary personal confidence, as Tony Blair demonstrated in Northern Ireland.