Ruling Myanmar: From Cyclone Nargis to National Elections
01 Jan 2010-
TL;DR: For example, the conditions under which the elections are being held are far from favorable, although the laws and procedures under which they will be conducted have been in place for seven months and quite widely publicized as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: November 2010 sees the first elections in Myanmar/Burma since 1990, to be held as the culmination of the military regime's 'Road Map for Democracy' The conditions under which the elections are being held are far from favourable, although the laws and procedures under which they will be conducted have been in place for seven months and quite widely publicized. Political controls remain repressive, freedom of expression and assembly does not exist, and international access is restricted by government controls as well as sanctions. While the elections represent a turning point for Myanmar/Burma, the lead-up period has not been marked by many notable improvements in the way the country is governed or in the reforming impact of international assistance programmes. Presenters at the Australian National University 2009 Myanmar/Burma Update conference examined these questions and more. Leading experts from the United States, Japan, France, and Australia as well as from Myanmar/Burma have conributed to this collection of papers from the Conference.
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01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that transboundary security challenges are primarily governed not through supranational organisations, but by transforming state apparatuses and integrating them into multilevel, regional or global regulatory governance networks.
Abstract: 'Non-traditional' security problems like pandemic diseases, climate change and terrorism now pervade the global agenda. Many argue that sovereign state-based governance is no longer adequate, demanding and constructing new approaches to manage border-spanning threats. Drawing on critical literature in political science, political geography and political economy, this is the first book that systematically explains the outcomes of these efforts. It shows that transboundary security challenges are primarily governed not through supranational organisations, but by transforming state apparatuses and integrating them into multilevel, regional or global regulatory governance networks. The socio-political contestation shaping this process determines the form, content and operation of transnational security governance regimes. Using three in-depth case studies – environmental degradation, pandemic disease, and transnational crime – this innovative book integrates global governance and international security studies and identifies the political and normative implications of non-traditional security governance, providing insights for scholars and policymakers alike.
97 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: Sen (2014), argues twenty-first censutry presents ‘both the challenges to security and its protectors’ in a much higher level of complexity and concludes that ‘the state remains the fundamental purveyor of security’.
Abstract: but understandable terms, human security allows individuals the pursuit of life, liberty, and both happiness and justice. (p.40) The relationship between the state and the people was redefined by the introduction of the human security approach. Human security as a concept has been successful in challenging the predominant view of treating a military security structure as meeting national security priorities. Sen (2014), argues twenty-first censutry presents ‘both the challenges to security and its protectors’ in a much higher level of complexity (Sen 2014, p.27). Reflecting the realities, Sen concludes that ‘The state remains the fundamental purveyor of security. Yet it often fails to fulfill its security obligations – and at times has even become a source of threat to its own people’ (Sen 2014, p.27). When human security was introduced by the Human Development Report of the UN, it clarified that human security cannot be equated with human development (UNDP 1994). In terms of definition, human development is defined as ‘a process of widening the range of people’s choice’ while the people who live with human security ‘can exercise these choices safely and freely’ and ‘they can be relatively confident that the opportunities they have today are not totally lost tomorrow’ (UNDP 1994, p.23). In this report, the UNDP designates human security into seven categories: ‘economic
27 citations
Cites background from "Ruling Myanmar: From Cyclone Nargis..."
...(1) Responsibility to protect (APCFR2P 2008; Barber 2009; Bellamy and Beeson 2010; Haacke 2009; Junk 2016; Kovach 2013; Özerdem 2010) (2) Political impacts of Cyclone Nargis on future democratization (Cheesman et al. 2010; International Crisis Group 2008) (3) Human rights violations at the time of Cyclone Nargis and politics of aid (Belanger and Horsey 2008; Grey 2009; Human Rights Watch 2010; Lwin 2015; Martin and Margesson 2008; Sari 2012; Seekins 2009a; Seekins 2009b; Selth 2008; Stover and Vinck 2008; Than 2009)...
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TL;DR: In the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APGML) as mentioned in this paper, all Asian states except North Korea have signed up to its rules and established a regional institution to promote and oversee the implementation of FATF's 40 Recommendations in the region.
Abstract: With the intensification of the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) worldwide campaign to promote anti-money-laundering regulation since the late 1990s, all Asian states except North Korea have signed up to its rules and have established a regional institution—the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering—to promote and oversee the implementation of FATF's 40 Recommendations in the region. This article analyses the FATF regime, making two key claims. First, anti-money-laundering governance in Asia reflects a broader shift to regulatory regionalism, particularly in economic matters, in that its implementation and functioning depend upon the rescaling of ostensibly domestic agencies to function within a regional governance regime. Second, although this form of regulatory regionalism is established in order to bypass the perceived constraints of national sovereignty and political will, it nevertheless inevitably becomes entangled within the socio-political conflicts that shape the exercise of state power more broadly. Consequently, understanding the outcomes of regulatory regionalism involves identifying how these conflicts shape how far and in what manner global regulations are adopted and implemented within specific territories. This argument is demonstrated by a case study of Myanmar.
27 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the role of political parties in Myanmar's democratisation process and found that most political parties have not been able to build effective organisational structures and also found a degree of party institutionalisation in the form of rootedness in society.
Abstract: The article examines the role of political parties in Myanmar’s democratisation process. We argue that the substance of democratisation depends on popular representation through political parties but question their capacity to provide such representation. Examining capacity through the concept of party institutionalisation, we find that most parties have not been able to build effective organisational structures. However, we also find a degree of party institutionalisation in the form of rootedness in society. Political cleavages between those favouring authoritarian rule over democratic rule and Burman nationhood over ethnic notions of nationhood have produced divisions between state-centred parties associated with Myanmar’s authoritarian legacy and society-centred pro-democracy and ethnic parties. Although being less dichotomous than in the past, we argue that these cleavages continue to provide a basis for party identity and rootedness in society. We conclude that further development of political parties and popular representation will be shaped by the relations between parties, the state, and society – where individual parties are shaped according to their tendencies towards state-centred cartel parties or society-centred mass parties.
26 citations
Cites background from "Ruling Myanmar: From Cyclone Nargis..."
...It may thus be argued that the reform process is primarily a calculated move to sustain economic and political power with increased domestic and international legitimacy, and that this strategy is possible due to the changing balance of power between China and the United States in Southeast Asia (Cheesman, Skidmore, and Wilson 2010; Holliday 2011; Lintner 2014; Steinberg and Fan 2012)....
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...…and political power with increased domestic and international legitimacy, and that this strategy is possible due to the changing balance of power between China and the United States in Southeast Asia (Cheesman, Skidmore, and Wilson 2010; Holliday 2011; Lintner 2014; Steinberg and Fan 2012)....
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Book•
09 Aug 2017
TL;DR: The Socio-economic Atlas of Myanmar as mentioned in this paper focuses on the analysis and evaluation of regional differences in geographical conditions, natural resources, infrastructure and socio-economic development in the states and regions of the country in the current transformation process of Myanmar.
Abstract: The Socio-Economic Atlas of Myanmar focuses on the analysis and evaluation of regional differences in geographical conditions, natural resources, infrastructure and, in particular, the socio-economic development in the states and regions of the country in the current transformation process of Myanmar. The Atlas is based on international literature, statistical data, qualitative research and spatial information in a Geographic Information System on Myanmar. The spatial analyses aim to increase the state of knowledge about Myanmar both within the country and abroad, and to support decision-making on spatial development policy.
25 citations
References
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04 May 2007
TL;DR: Political Authority in Burma's Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation, and Coexistence Preliminary Pages explores the relationship between devolution and occupation in Burma.
Abstract: Political Authority in Burma's Ethnic Minority States: Devolution, Occupation, and Coexistence Preliminary Pages Introduction The "State" in Burma The Extremes: Devolution vs Occupation and War Coexistence: Resignation, Accommodation, and Acceptance Conclusion Recommendations Endnotes Bibliography Project Information: Internal Conflicts and State-Building Challenges in Asia Policy Studies: List of Reviewers 2006-07 Policy Studies: Previous Publications
104 citations
92 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power as mentioned in this paper describes a transformation in Buddhist practice in contemporary Burma, which has had real consequences for how the oppressive military junta, in power since the early 1960s, governs the country.
Abstract: Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power describes a transformation in Buddhist practice in contemporary Burma. This revitalization movement has had real consequences for how the oppressive military junta, in power since the early 1960s, governs the country. Drawing on more than ten years of extensive fieldwork in Burma, Ingrid Jordt explains how vipassana meditation has brought about a change of worldview for millions of individuals, enabling them to think and act independently of the totalitarian regime. She addresses human rights as well as the relationship between politics and religion in a country in which neither the government nor the people clearly separates the two. Jordt explains how the movement has been successful in its challenge to the Burmese military dictatorship where democratically inspired resistance movements have failed. Jordt's unsurpassed access to the centers of political and religious power in Burma becomes the reader's opportunity to witness the political workings of one of the world's most secretive and tyrannically ruled countries. Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement is a valuable contribution to Buddhist studies as well as anthropology, religious studies, and political science.
92 citations
TL;DR: This article examined recent military rule in Argentina and Brazil, and found that no view of legal interpretation inherently disposes its adherents to either accept or repudiate repressive law, since most authoritarian rulers nominally affirm their constitutional predecessors' positive law and are often unwilling to codify publicly their most repressive policies.
Abstract: Throughout the world, judges are often asked to implement the repressive measures of authoritarian rulers. Which conception of legal interpretation and judicial role, if any, make judges more likely to resist such pressures? That question, central to Anglo-American jurisprudence since the Hart-Fuller debate, is addressed by examining recent military rule in Argentina and Brazil. In Argentina, judges were sympathetic to military rule and so criticized its “excesses” in the jurisprudential terms favored by the juntas: positivism and legal realism. Brazilian judges, by contrast, were largely unsympathetic to military rule, and so couched their criticism in terms of natural law, in order to raise larger questions and reach a broader public. Empirical study of the cases and conceptual analysis of existing theories both reveal that no view of legal interpretation inherently disposes its adherents to either accept or repudiate repressive law. Contingent political circumstances—the rulers' favored form of legal rhetoric, and the degree to which judges accept the need for a period of extra-constitutional rule—determine which legal theory fosters most resistance. But since most authoritarian rulers nominally affirm their constitutional predecessors' positive law and are often unwilling to codify publicly their most repressive policies, strict literalism usually offers the most congenial idiom for judicial resistance to such regimes.
83 citations
Book•
14 Jun 1999
TL;DR: The colonial club - 'natives not admitted' the violent 'pacification' of Burma Buddhist cosmology and political power the colonization of Burmese identity Buddhism, xenophobia and rebellion in the 1930s two versions of nationalism - union state or ethnicism Buddishism and military power - two different strategies, two different Thakins Ne Win's club Aung San Suu Kyi's strategy nationalism as the practice of power the rules of the Myanmar club Buddhism and the religious divide among the Karen U Thuzana and Vegan Buddhism.
Abstract: The colonial club - 'natives not admitted' the violent 'pacification' of Burma Buddhist cosmology and political power the colonization of Burmese identity Buddhism, xenophobia and rebellion in the 1930s two versions of nationalism - union state or ethnicism Buddishism and military power - two different strategies, two different Thakins Ne Win's club Aung San Suu Kyi's strategy nationalism as the practice of power the rules of the Myanmar club Buddhism and the religious divide among the Karen U Thuzana and Vegan Buddhism Buddhism, prophecies and rebellion autocracy and nationalism historicism and historical memory a final word - but no conclusion.
71 citations