regional security strategy, as seen in its alliance with the United States and subsequent alignment with China to deal with the Vietnamese threat in the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, Bangkok has employed a strategy similar to Singapore’s, using multilateral institutions and trade agreements to draw the major powers into the region as a means of ensuring stability. It has signed FTAs with Australia, China, and India, and is undertaking negotiations with Japan and the United States. Significantly, Thailand is ideally placed to promote pan-regional institutionalism as it sits at the crossroads of Northeast, Southeast, and South Asia. Hence, while both Singapore and Thailand are looking to cultivate India as another potential great power that will take an interest in the region, it is Bangkok that has been more active diplomatically. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s government has tried assiduously to cultivate ties with South Asia through economic organizations such as BISECT (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sir Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation), and in forging a new transnational dialogue forum—the Asian Cooperation Dialogue—which brings together countries in East and South Asia as well as the Middle East