Case Of Myanmar Research Articles

Geopolitical Competition Between India and China in the Indian Ocean Region: The Case of Myanmar

The 21st century has witnessed an intensification of the strategic rivalry between India and China, particularly in the Indian Ocean region, stemming from long-standing historical contradictions over border disputes and the competition for control over vital maritime trade routes crisscrossing the ocean. This rivalry has profoundly impacted the political and security landscape of countries within the region. Myanmar, being a pivotal geo-strategic location bordering both these powers, has emerged as a crucible for this competitive dynamic, wherein India and China are vying for influence and strategic leverage. This paper seeks to elucidate the nuanced position, role, and extent of competition between India and China in Myanmar. It delves into the multifaceted nature of this rivalry, encompassing not only geopolitical considerations but also economic interests and ideological underpinnings. The analysis underscores how the contradictions, conflicts, and divergent political-economic calculations of these two influential powers in the Indian Ocean region have manifested in a complex web of geopolitical competition within Myanmar. Through a rigorous examination of the historical context, contemporary developments, and the interplay of various factors shaping this dynamic, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying drivers, strategies, and potential implications of India and China's competitive engagement in Myanmar. Ultimately, it concludes that the persistent tensions and power projections by these two major powers in the Indian Ocean have inevitably spilled over into the realm of Myanmar, rendering it a pivotal battleground for their strategic aspirations and regional influence. Received: 18 June 2024 / Accepted: 31 October 2024 / Published: 05 November 2024

Road through a broken place: the BRI in post-coup Myanmar

In the wake of the 2021 coup, Myanmar experienced a renewed civil war that has fragmented the country along a myriad of old and new conflict lines. Despite the high-intensity violence across many regions of the country, China is still pursuing an ambitious connectivity project under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is meant to connect Myanmar to the Chinese market and boost Myanmar’s industrial development. However, the challenging post-coup environment has required significant changes in China’s approach to local infrastructure development and empowered a new set of subnational actors on both sides of the border. This article analyzes how CMEC has fared since the coup, and how the fragmentation of Myanmar has gone hand in hand with that of Chinese agency in the country. Contrary to prevailing descriptions of the BRI as a coherent, strategic, and top-down project, we argue that the case of Myanmar exposes the degree to which it is shaped by local interests and circumstances, and the limits of centralized BRI implementation. Finally, it is likely that adjustments in Chinese policy triggered by the situation in Myanmar will have more long-term consequences for the future of the BRI, specifically a more direct involvement in local security efforts and greater engagement with local authorities beyond the central government.

In Good Times and in Bad, in Sickness and in Health: The Continuous Rise in Adoption of Labour-Saving Agricultural Technologies in Myanmar

Agriculture is rapidly transforming in many low- and middle-income countries – most often driven by the adoption of new agricultural technologies – but changes remain poorly understood in fragile and conflict-affected states. We look at the case of Myanmar, a prime example of such a state. After decades of isolationism and economic stagnation, it opened its economy in the beginning of the 2010s, leading to rapid economic growth. But the COVID-19 health crisis and a military coup in the beginning of 2021 – leading to heightened conflicts, forced displacements, and increased migration – dramatically reversed that outlook. Based on large-scale farm surveys, we find that adoption of labour-saving agricultural technologies – measured by the use of mechanization, herbicides, and direct seeding of rice – increased rapidly over the economic growth period and that the increase surprisingly persisted during the crisis years, but at a slower rate. This uptake was lower, however, for households in the most conflict-affected areas, partly due to differential agricultural input availability. Smallholders and more remote farmers also participated less. This finding suggests an increasing labour productivity gap for remote and conflict-affected smallholders, with important implications for their welfare.

Movement escalation and mobilization for resistance: From anti-coup protest to ‘People's War’ in Myanmar

Protest campaigns have proven an effective form of contention to challenge authoritarian rule yet can at times escalate into armed conflict. This article aims to explain how a protest movement can escalate to an uprising by examining the case of Myanmar, where the 2021 military coup prompted the emergence of a diverse movement of strike groups, civil society, ousted Burman-majority parliamentarians, and ethnic minority resistance organizations. Based on original interviews with movement members, the article traces how repression triggered escalation and spurred increased cooperation among movement actors that resulted in an armed uprising. Building primarily on social movements and contentious politics studies, this article argues effective campaign framing was critical in maintaining movement unity and legitimizing violence as a form of resistance. Mobilization of resources in social networks and coalition networks was key to organizing armed resistance. The article contributes novel insights by showing that a diverse movement can strengthen cooperation to mount armed resistance, instead of fragment during escalation as studies have often found. The article also deepens our understanding of how movements with links to established armed actors may escalate, as it details how cooperation between mainstream protestors and armed actors can transform a movement into armed resistance.

Enriching peace and human rights education discourses - the case of Myanmar

Enriching peace and human rights education discourses - the case of Myanmar

Digitalization amidst educational crises: A comparative study of the new media literacy (NML) levels of the Philippines and Myanmar

AbstractWhile traditional media literacy (TML) facilitates outdated patterns of digital media response, new media literacy (NML) frames the adaptation of literacy to the ever‐dynamic trend of media development. It then raises the cruciality of integrating NML concepts into national educational frameworks. The study aims to explore the case of Myanmar and the Philippines' NML capacity levels. Both countries have a digital media environment enveloped by information distortions mainly rooted in tumultuous political climates. The study leans to notions of educational crises in both countries as seen in terms of (1) sociopolitical contexts that lead to the irresponsive initiatives to improve individual criticality, (2) lack of emphasis on NML response, and (3) the implication of state and individual approaches against false information. Finally, the study presents a multifaceted response to educational paradigms derived from interpretive social‐scientific approaches in seeing the critical issues concerning digital media use.

Revolutionary resistance against full autocratization. Actors and strategies of resistance after the 2021 military coup in Myanmar

Resistance against autocratization is an important contemporary issue that calls for increased scholarly attention. The global wave of autocratization has generated a proliferation of research on the drivers of autocratization, but fewer studies on the possibilities, strategies, spatialities, and effectiveness of resistance. This article responds to these knowledge needs through a case study of revolutionary resistance against full autocratization in Myanmar after the 2021 military coup. The article examines the junta's strategies for autocratic control, trace the development of the resistance movement and analyze its strategies, spatialities and effectiveness. The article shows that the coup has been followed by a mass resistance movement that is remarkably successful in countering the regime strategies for authoritarian consolidation and survival. We argue that this effectiveness rests on the movement's ability to deploy mutually reinforcing strategies of economic, symbolic, political, and armed resistance to contest the military's claims on state authority, legitimacy, economic resources, and monopoly of armed force. The Myanmar case thus confirms the centrality of civil resistance under full autocratization, but also points to the importance of insurgent political institutions and armed resistance to counter authoritarian repression, legitimation, and co-optation strategies. The case study also shows that the spatialities of resistance strategies – being both embedded in places and territories and extended through spatial networks and scalar strategies – are key contributors to the effectiveness of the movement. This broad mobilization behind a common revolutionary goal offers the best prospect for defeating military dictatorship in Myanmar and provides relevant lessons for similar cases elsewhere.

Exploring the Impact of Study Abroad on Students’ Intercultural Competence: The Case of Myanmar

Today’s increasingly heterogeneous world imposes demands on higher education institutions to develop university students’ intercultural competence (IC) so that they respond constructively to the cultural challenges of the 21st century. This study aims to explore the impact of short-term study abroad programs on the development of students’ intercultural competence. 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Myanmar undergraduates who participated in study-abroad programs to get an in-depth understanding of their study abroad experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to examine how these programs influence their attitudes toward the native culture, the host culture and cultural differences, and their intercultural interaction. The main findings reveal that study abroad enhances students’ IC, confirming the five elements of IC by Deardorff (2008): attitudes, knowledge and comprehension, skills, desired internal outcomes, and desired external outcomes, with an emerging aspect ‘recommendation’ based on ‘cultural reflection’. Specific implications are offered to university administrators and decision-makers of Myanmar higher education on the basis of the findings.

How Legislators Frame Contentious Megaprojects: Insights from Parliamentary Debates on Letpadaung Mines and Myitsone Dam in Myanmar

ABSTRACT Little is known about how legislative actors engage with social movements in framing contests over conflictual policy issues. This article investigates the case of Myanmar and enquires into how such framing activity can play out in a resurgent legislature. It focuses on two megaprojects that generated intense public debate during the country’s decade of liberalisation (2011–2021): the Letpadaung mines and the Myitsone dam. It builds on the analysis of the Union legislature’s plenary records across two legislatures to uncover how legislators contextualised and framed such large-scale infrastructure projects and the social conflicts they have caused. The findings reveal that legislators sought to position themselves as informed policy actors, eager to highlight the misconduct of past regimes, while deploying three major frames involving good governance, environmental damage, and injustice related to land expropriation. Yet legislators addressing such megaprojects largely avoided emotionally loaded narratives and nationalistic tropes that other social actors in Myanmar typically mobilised. The findings make a threefold contribution: they enhance our theoretical understanding of how public officials engage in competitive framing processes, advance knowledge of how issue framing was deployed in policymaking during Myanmar’s decade of democratisation, and provide evidence of how its political elites construed controversial megaprojects.

Investigating the impact of a community disaster awareness training on subjective disaster preparedness: the case of Myanmar's Ayeyarwaddy region.

This paper investigates the impact of a community disaster awareness training on subjective disaster preparedness, focusing on the case of a Republic of Korean aid-supported disaster risk reduction project in the Ayeyarwaddy region of Myanmar. A subsequent survey by the authors of a total of 182 households, an equal number of project participating and control households, produced encouraging results regarding the endeavour. Although both ordinal logistic regression and ordinary least squares models support overall robust effectiveness of participating in the project, the results also reveal different effects of specific activities. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) awareness meetings and trainings, and personal visits to share knowledge and/or to distribute informative flyers, are important. In contrast, the significance of drills or community activities, in mass, is lost in a combined model. Consequently, 'personalising risk' should be prioritised in any DRR undertaking, as well as, and in particular, development cooperation aimed at increasing confidence in disaster preparedness.

Effectiveness of Korea International Bilateral Development Cooperation in the Agricultural Sector: Case of Myanmar

Effectiveness of Korea International Bilateral Development Cooperation in the Agricultural Sector: Case of Myanmar

Constructive Indonesia's Conflict Resolution on Rohingnya Refugees in Accordance With Myanmar's Case

Constructive Indonesia's Conflict Resolution on Rohingnya Refugees in Accordance With Myanmar's Case

In the Pursuit of High Purposes: The International Court of Justice, Obligations Erga Omnes and the Prohibition of Genocide

Abstract The ICJ has asserted that the prohibition of genocide generates both obligations erga omnes and obligations erga omnes partes. While it has recently referred to the question of standing and the erga omnes partes character of the obligations under the Genocide Convention in The Gambia v. Myanmar case, the Court has not yet addressed this question from the perspective of the prohibition of genocide as an obligation erga omnes in a broader context. Hence, the purpose of this article is to examine whether the erga omnes character of the prohibition of genocide under general international law confers upon States a right of standing to invoke State responsibility before the Court, provided that certain conditions are met. Three instances are envisaged through which this could be possible, but for the time being, The Gambia v. Myanmar case remains the most representative one in this matter.

Hate Speech and Incitement in Myanmar before and after the February 2021 Coup

Abstract This article examines the use of hate speech and incitement by perpetrators of violence and atrocities in Myanmar against vulnerable populations like the Rohingya community from the outbreak of communal conflict in Rakhine in 2012 to the post-February 2021 coup. It argues that there is a clear link between hate speech and incitement, on one hand, and the escalation of violent attacks against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in the country, which presaged the atrocities committed by security forces. It draws some implications for R2P and atrocities prevention from the Myanmar case study, which includes the flawed democratisation process initiated by the military and the manifest failure of both the usdp and nld governments to uphold their primary responsibility to protect vulnerable populations in the country. As well, the international community led by the United Nations and asean have both failed in their responsibility to respond in a timely and decisive manner to protect the Rohingya from genocide as well as the larger civilian population from the junta’s violent crackdown after the February 2021 coup.

Using school–university partnerships as a development tool in low‐income countries: The case of Myanmar

AbstractThis article suggests that creating school–university partnerships is a powerful educational development tool not only in highly developed systems but also in low‐income contexts. Using the example of Myanmar, it presents these partnerships as a multi‐functional tool. This tool supports seven functional areas: teacher learning and professional development, educational research, school improvement, university improvement, curriculum design and reform implementation, generating and spreading educational innovations, and enhancing participation and social dialogue. The article also suggests that international development organizations should consider the creation of school–university cooperation as an effective form of intervention in contexts of underdevelopment.

Not an Overreach of the Court’s Jurisdiction, Putting Erga Omnes into Motion: In Partial Response to Xiao Mao’s Comment on the ICJ’s Judgment on the Preliminary Objections in The Gambia v. Myanmar

1. This letter is in response to Xiao Mao’s thought-provoking article titled “Public-Interest Litigation before the International Court of Justice: Comment on The Gambia v. Myanmar Case”. Arguably, the very title of the article implies a special reading of the judgment in that neither the majority of the Court nor even Judge ad hoc Kress delivering his separate declaration, has viewed the lawsuit brought by The Gambia as public interest litigation. It is only Judge Xue’s separate opinion which reads it that way. Like Judge Xue’s dissent, one of the article’s central concerns regarding the judgment of 22 July is on the “public interest litigation” nature of The Gambia’s efforts. This letter would argue that this emphasis is, though appealing at first glance, ultimately unpersuasive. Indeed, even the separate declaration of Myanmar appointed Judge ad hoc Kress has observed that “[a]s this latter concept [erga omnes] is now well entrenched in the Court’s jurisprudence, there is also no need to recognize the term actio popularis as a term of art in that context” (Kress, Sep. Op., para.32).

Development aid and domestic regional inequality: the case of Myanmar

ABSTRACT There is a cyclical nature to the dilemmas confronting international donors willing to operate in Myanmar. Brief periods of relative openness led to rapid surges in development assistance, regularly interrupted by long phases of military rule and disengagement by donors. Amidst all this, many predicaments remain. This article engages with one of them: the inequality between regions. How have international donors reacted to the issue of domestic regional inequality? Recent studies suggest that official development assistance (ODA) does not target poor regions very well, but it is not always clear why this is the case. Myanmar’s sudden, yet uneven and unequal liberalization from 2011 to 2021 catalyzed huge inflows of ODA, while it also confronted donors with new policy dilemmas. The article shows that aid providers struggle with the problem of rising regional inequality, especially for political reasons. Donor and recipient interests often do not align well on this issue. In the case of Myanmar, donors who press for regional inequality to sit prominently on the agenda might fare less successfully than those who address the issue indirectly. The article concludes that regional inequality and the politics of targeting deserve a more central role in the political economy of ODA.

Towards a Judicial r2p: The International Court of Justice and the Obligation to Prevent Genocide in The Gambia v. Myanmar Case

Abstract This article proposes a reading of the 2020 Order on Provisional Measures in The Gambia v. Myanmar case through the r2p lens. It holds that the International Court of Justice (icj), notwithstanding its inherent limitations as a judicial organ, can play an important role in the responsibility of the international community to help to protect populations from genocide, and that a ‘judicial r2p’ can exist under r2p’s Pillar Three. To that end, the article develops two main arguments. First, that in the 2020 Order, the icj used a language closer to r2p than ever. Second, that, by submitting the dispute to the Court, The Gambia not only has exercised a right under the Genocide Convention, but it also fulfilled its obligation to prevent genocide, and as a member of the international community, has contributed to activate the latter’s r2p regarding the Rohingya in Myanmar.

Public-Interest Litigation before the International Court of Justice: Comment on The Gambia v. Myanmar Case

Abstract The recent Judgment of the International Court of Justice on the Preliminary Objections in The Gambia v. Myanmar case infers the standing of The Gambia to bring claims before the Court from its “common interest” as a State party to the Genocide Convention. This sweeping approach entails risks of subjectivity and over-breadth. A more nuanced approach, taking into account other features of the treaty in question, should be adopted to determine what obligation would warrant the standing of a State to bring a claim before the Court in respect of its breach. In addition, the adversarial structure of the contentious proceedings of the Court and the procedural rules applicable to it are ill-suited to public-interest litigation, and significant reform of the procedural rules of the Court should be made in order to make public-interest litigation more effective before it.

Judicial Loyalty to the Military in Authoritarian Regimes: How the Courts Are Militarized in Myanmar

While scholars have considered the role of courts in authoritarian regimes generally, less attention has been paid to judicial-military relations. In this article I consider how courts are militarized and made subordinate and loyal to military rule. In military regimes, the courts are at risk of militarization and the process of rendering judges loyal to the military through practices such as career path socialization, selection, and restructuring of the courts. This raises an entry-exit dilemma for judges. The dilemma lies in the fact that if judges committed to civilian rule do not join the bench, they are potentially leaving the judiciary to military partisans with little prospect for reform. Yet joining the judiciary means the danger of being co-opted and adding legitimacy to the military regime or the risk of being forced out if politics shifts from civilian to military rule. Through a case study of judicial profiles in Myanmar, I explore how the loyalty of judges to the military depends on whether they are military insiders, military affiliates, civilian affiliates, or civilian outsiders. The case of Myanmar is a vivid reminder to scholars of judicial behavior that in military authoritarian regimes, judges face an entry-exit dilemma.