Strategy, Negotiation & Crisis Leadership
ทฤษฎีเกม: ยุทธศาสตร์ไทยในสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2
Summary
The talk applies game theory to the Thai government’s decisions in the Second World War, under high uncertainty and conflicting interests.
The complicated part is that Thailand played both sides at once — aligning with the Axis while the Free Thai movement ran in parallel.
The question is whether that was confusion or deliberate hedging.
Key points
A small country plays a different game from a great power
When you cannot win either way, the objective shifts from winning to surviving at the lowest cost.
Playing both sides costs you if you are caught
The strategy worked because both sides still wanted Thailand, and that condition does not always hold.
The outcome vindicates the method without proving the intent
Thailand escaped the status of a defeated power. That is a good result; it does not mean it was all planned.
Game theory organises the reading
It does not say who was right. It makes the costs and payoffs of each option visible.