Derek Grossman is a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corp. think tank in Santa Monica, California, and an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at the University of Southern California. He previously served as the Pentagon's intelligence advisor.
While geopolitical tensions between China and the United States have raised fears of serious war in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, another important watershed in the Indo-Pacific, the Gulf of Thailand, has so far remained relatively quiet. That could change in the coming years as Beijing embarks on a series of controversial projects that could inflame the region.