The Last in a List of False Starts? The MARA Initiative for South Thailand (2015-2019)

After the failure of the 2013 KL Talks, Thailand's newly installed military government initiated a new round of peace talks with insurgent representatives collectively known as MARA. The MARA initiative lasted for four years. In this article, I put forward the argument that, although different in some respects, peace talks between insurgent representatives and the Thai state between 2015 and 2019 suffered from the same shortcomings as previous attempts at peace talks for the southern provinces (2006 - 2014). I will also argue that the MARA initiative has been the last in a list of false starts at building a credible peace process for the south since the conflict began in 2004 and that developments in January 2020 should be interpreted as a turning point for the conflict.