International Norms and Local Politics in Myanmar

International Norms and Local Politics in Myanmar
Author: Yukiko Nishikawa
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2022-03-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000545881

Nishikawa explores how international norms have been adopted in the local context in Myanmar to project a certain international image, while in fact the authorities are exploiting these norms to protect their own interests. In the liberal international world order promoted since the end of the Cold War, democracy, rule of law and human rights have become key components in state and peace-building around the world. Many donor governments and international organisations have promoted them in their aid and assistance. However, the promotion of these international norms is based on a flawed understanding of sovereignty and the world. For this reason, the enforcement of these international norms in Myanmar not only fails to protect vulnerable people but also, in some instances, exacerbates the situation, thereby generating critical insecurity to the most vulnerable people. A vital resource for scholars of Myanmar’s politics, as well as a valuable case study for International Relations scholars more broadly.

Myanmar's Foreign Policy

Myanmar's Foreign Policy
Author: Jurgen Haacke
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Burma
ISBN: 9780415407267

This Adelphi Paper examines Myanmar's foreign policy, which is predicated on state-building and development, as well as on defending the regime's priority of establishing an enduring constitution over democratization.

Myanmar in Transition

Myanmar in Transition
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9290928131

Myanmar, which is emerging from decades of isolation, is poised to accelerate its economic growth on the back of its abundant labor force, rich natural resources, and geographical location. But the country faces many development challenges to achieve strong and inclusive growth. To take advantage of its rich potential and endowments, Myanmar can also use its strategic location between the People's Republic of China and India, and act as a conduit between South and Southeast Asia. To sustain its growth momentum in the long run, Myanmar should aim for a growth trajectory that is inclusive, equitable, and environmentally sustainable. This special report assesses the country's strengths and weaknesses and highlights the challenges and risks. The key lies in prioritizing the actions to surmount the challenges and introducing the requisite reforms.

The Military in Burma/Myanmar

The Military in Burma/Myanmar
Author: David I Steinberg
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2021-05-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9814951722

The Myanmar military has dominated that complex country for most of the period since independence in 1948. The fourth coup of 1 February 2021 was the latest by the military to control those aspects of society it deemed essential to its own interests, and its perception of state interests. The military’s institutional power was variously maintained by rule by decree, through political parties it founded and controlled, and through constitutional provisions it wrote that could not be amended without its approval. This fourth coup seems a product of personal demands for power between Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and Aung San Suu Kyi, and the especially humiliating defeat of the military-backed party at the hands of the National League for Democracy in the November 2020 elections. The violent and bloody suppression of widespread demonstrations continues, compromise seems unlikely, and the previous diarchic governance will not return. Myanmar’s political and economic future is endangered and suppression will only result in future outbreaks of political frustration.

Making Politics Work for Development

Making Politics Work for Development
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2016-07-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464807744

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

Equality in Politics

Equality in Politics
Author: Julie Ballington
Publisher: Inter-Parliamentary Union
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2008
Genre: Women
ISBN: 9291423793

The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia

The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia
Author: Juanita Elias
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2016-08-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1316558797

In this empirically rich collection of essays, a team of leading international scholars explore the way that economic transformation is sustained and challenged by everyday practices across Southeast Asia. Drawing together a body of interdisciplinary scholarship, the authors explore how the emergence of more marketized forms of economic policy-making in Southeast Asia impacts everyday life. The book's twelve chapters address topics such as domestic migration, trade union politics in Myanmar, mining in the Philippines, halal food in Singapore, Islamic finance in Malaysia, education reform in Indonesia, street vending in Malaysia, regional migration between Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia, and Southeast Asian domestic workers in Hong Kong. This collection not only enhances understandings of the everyday political economies at work in specific Southeast Asian sites, but makes a major theoretical contribution to the development of an everyday political economy approach in which perspectives from developing economies and non-Western actors are taken seriously.

Conflict, Continuity, and Change in Social Movements in Southeast Asia

Conflict, Continuity, and Change in Social Movements in Southeast Asia
Author: Abdul Rohman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2022-07-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000604497

This book demonstrates how preserving ideology and relationships with other activists affords social movements to persist over time amid limited resources and political opportunities in Southeast Asia. Examining two peace movements in Indonesia – the largest democratic country in Southeast Asia – to illuminate discontinuity, continuity, and change in social movements, the author uses a cultural approach to understanding why social movements persist. He argues that the activists’ memory, relationship with others, collective identity, and emotion are reasons for social movements to ascend and peak. This is a direct response to the argument that the availability of resources and political opportunities is the main ingredient for any social movements to rise. While having different fates, the two movements studied arose in the midst of violence between Christian and Muslim communities in Ambon, Indonesia: The Kopi Badati movement and Filterinfo. The book extends the applicability of the cultural approach in explaining why social movements discontinue, continue, and change over time, without discounting the importance of available resources and political opportunities. Addressing a gap in the existing social movement studies, the book explains why a social movement disbands and why the other manages to continue and change after achieving its immediate goal. It will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian studies, (new)-media and communications, civil society, and international development.

Hedging Strategies in Southeast Asia

Hedging Strategies in Southeast Asia
Author: Alfred Gerstl
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2022-07-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000605361

Introducing a re-conceptualized comprehensive hedging framework, this book analyses the relations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam with China in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the South China Sea dispute. The author argues that ASEAN and the three Southeast Asian governments pursue a hedging strategy towards the rising China. Hedging expands the strategic options of smaller powers which are in Neorealism often restricted to bandwagoning and balancing. A hedging strategy, however, can simultaneously contain both elements of bandwagoning (e.g., in economics) and balancing (e.g., in security affairs). Even though the four hedging strategies and their implementation vary, in principle they all seek closer economic relations with Beijing, while maintaining strong security relations with Washington. A major innovation of the new hedging concept is the inclusion of the perceptions of the hedger on the risks and opportunities stemming from the relations with the hedging target and of the strategic value of potential hedging partners. The comprehensive hedging concept and the important empirical findings will be of interest to researchers in the fields of International Relations, Security, Political Geography, Economics, History, and Asian Studies.

Indonesia’s Failure in Papua

Indonesia’s Failure in Papua
Author: Emir Chairullah
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2021-12-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000518396

Chairullah investigates how the political, social, and economic interests of national and local elites were negotiated in the formulation and early stages of Special Autonomy in Papua Province, Indonesia. The Papuan case lends support to the current conception of elite theory, which considers the influence of actors and dynamics beyond power elites in the decision-making process. The failure of the policy implementation as a conflict reduction strategy in the Papuan case can be attributed to the dynamics of elite configurations during the negotiation and early implementation stages. Chairullah presents two significant new findings for research on Papuan Special Autonomy. Firstly, that secret negotiations were held between Papuan and national elites during Abdurrahman Wahid’s presidency, and these were crucial in reducing separatist sentiment in Papua. Secondly, that the United States, through Freeport McMoRan, strongly influenced the Special Autonomy negotiation process. The actions of national elites in Jakarta led to widespread disappointment about the policy at all levels in Papua and the subsequent escalation of separatist sentiment based on Papuan ethnic identity. An important book for scholars of Indonesian politics and society, and especially those with a particular interest in the Papuan conflict.