The complete policy paralysis that has prevailed during the interregnum between Presidents Bush and Obama has not helped. US policy has devolved into a sort of wheel of fortune game for financial firms.

At the same time, the junta s agenda entails measures to control the direction of Thai politics in particular, by marginalizing opponents, especially politicians tied to the influential Shinawatra family. Indeed, the second major factor shaping the post coup interregnum was the impeachment of Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed by the military in 2006 and remains abroad in self imposed exile.