Understanding Myanmar 

Myanmar is a complex and volatile country grappling with two main forms of conflict: notions of ethnicity, as represented by the struggle between Bama/Burman and other ethnic groups; and contrasting definitions of nationalism, i.e. the military’s tenets of sovereignty, unity and stability as opposed to pro-democracy principles.

These two conflicts have remained separate for decades but are now being recognised as interconnected since the Burmese Army has initiated brutal reprisals against coup protestors.

For a better understanding of the cleavage along the lines of ethnicity, read my introduction to the edited volume, Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Boundaries and the articles listed below.   

Introduction - Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes

Often viewed as marginal spaces at the edge of a nation, borders are in fact sites of social, political and cultural changethat impact local and national politics. This edited volume underscores this relationship by drawing attention to the significance of the frontier regions in defining and exemplifying many of the dilemmas that beset Myanmar. As van Schendel and de Maaker assert, “[t]he making of borders cannot be separated from attempts to define nations” (2014, p. 3).
Read More →


ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute Perspectives •

Counting and Being Counted: Ethnicity and Politics in Myanmar’s Census

Myanmar’s 2014 census provides a fascinating case for examining sensitivities surrounding the conduct of a census particularly in a society where ethnicity is highly politicised. Using accounts and anecdotes about how the census was conducted, this article describes disagreements over ethnic classifications and labels, and considers the politics of counting and being counted in ethnically-charged Myanmar.
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute Working Paper •

Competing Forms of Sovereignty in the Karen State of Myanmar

The Thai-Burmese border, represented by an innocuous line on a map, is more than a marker of geographical space. It articulates the territorial limits of sovereignty2 and represents the ideology behind the doctrine of modern nation-states. Accordingly, every political state must have a definite territorial boundary which corresponds with differences of culture and language. Moreover, territorial sovereignty is absolute, indivisible and mutually exclusive, as set out by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia.
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute Commentary •

The Karen National Union’s (KNU) Withdrawal from Official Myanmar Peace Negotiations and the State of the Peace Process

On 3 January 2019, the Karen National Union (KNU) declared that it would be withdrawing from the formal peace process, marking a definitive declaration of its dissatisfaction with the peace negotiations. This comes on the back of the KNU’s hiatus in attending formal meetings at the end of October last year which ended in mid-November. The reason given for the withdrawal in October was that the KNU needed time for further internal discussions because of differences in opinion with the government.

To make sense of the coup that took place in February, and the dynamics of the second axis of conflict, have a look at these articles.