Types of Geoeconomic Power and Competition over Myanmar Before and During the Reform Era of the 2010s

Abstract

Over the past decade, the United States, China, and Japan contested for influence in Myanmar, as the country began to emerge from decades of isolation and military rule. Despite the rich descriptions of rivalries between the United States and China, as well as Japan and China, the nature of geoeconomic power competition in Myanmar remains underarticulated. Popular accounts often use a magnitude-based concept of power to track how much power countries have gained or lost over Myanmar. However, the types of power may be equally important, particularly for understanding the geoeconomic dynamics in play. This article thus examines the geoeconomic power competition in Myanmar using a typology of interstate economic power relations. This typology expands the conventional framework centered on geographic distance to incorporate other types of geoeconomic power, such as deterritorialized financial regulatory power and the adjacent power exercised through shared borders. This approach contributes to a better understanding of the geoeconomic rivalries in Myanmar and across Southeast Asia.