In this chapter I analyse the diverse aspects of environmental politics that were played out between state and non-state actors in the two core countries of this book, Thailand and Myanmar. As I set out in Chapter 1, this book focuses on the Thai case study campaigns in the period from the mid-1990s to the fall of the Thaksin government in 2006, while the Myanmar case study campaigns are examined from their beginnings, in the mid-1990s, until the installation of the new ‘civilian’ Myanmar government in 2011. Throughout these periods Thailand adopted several roles, not only as an importer, exporter and consumer of energy, but also as sometimes-reluctant host to much of the Myanmar activist diaspora campaigning against the projects being pursued at home. Despite the growing influence of transnational actors the ability to engage in activist environmental governance in these countries was still highly dependent on the nature of the domestic political regimes. The overriding factor that determines domestic political openings for activism is the extent to which democratic principles are applied and respected within a society. The degree to which basic human rights – such as freedom of speech and freedom of association – are permitted or curtailed determines the openness of environmental protest and the forms in which it is most efficacious. In addition to these civil rights there are now widely recognised human rights related to a healthy environment (Ksentini 1994), which, if ignored by the regime in power, can exacerbate environmental insecurity. This chapter therefore develops a political regime model, based on the level of political competition and authoritarianism, which can then be used to assess the regime types of Thailand and Myanmar.