Thailand's pro-junta diplomacy has brought severe damage to the country's standing in the international community. On May 22, Thailand commemorated the second anniversary of the coup that overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Two years have passed, and the unresolved political stalemate accompanied by a worsening human rights situation tells Western nations that their punitive measures against the junta have been largely impotent.

Since the coup, Western nations have imposed sanctions against the Thai military government, calling for an immediate restoration of democracy.

The United States was first to voice its concerns regarding the increasingly shrinking democratic space in Thailand. It pursued several castigating steps by suspending financial aid worth $4.6 million to the Thai Army, and downgrading Cobra Gold, the region's largest military exercise between Thailand and the U.S. Furthermore, Thailand in 2014 was excluded from the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise—the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC).