 ::::I am not a professor of Thai politics, either; but there are professors (or assistant professors, or lecturers, their actual academic title is not that important) of Thai politics who have published their observations and analysis of the current conflict. Several are already linked in the article (Pavin, McCargo, Montesano, Nelson, Ukrist), we could add many more (Pasuk & Baker, Connors, Thitinan, ...) Each of them has their own thoughts and explanations of what is behind this crisis, including social conflict (lower/lower-middle class vs. upper-middle/upper class), regional conflict (North/Northeast vs. South; or capital vs. periphery), economic interests, and also succession (at least mentioned by Pavin and Thitinan; I think it is not that important what journalists say, scholars are better qualified to analyse the political/social/economic/cultural... backgrounds). In my opinion it is problematic to only mention one theory of what is the background of this conflict in the lead section, and neglect the other reasons that are discussed by high-profile analysts as well. This would be selective and unbalanced in my view. I would rather have a separate section in which all potential causes of the conflict can be discussed, mentioning which author(s) represent them (and, if any, which author(s) reject them). If we discuss all potential reasons that are contributed to the debate by any analyst in the lead section, the lead will be huge. And this could daunt readers rather than inviting them to continue reading.   