Post-colonial identity and power politics. The case of Myanmar's civil war
Keywords:
United Kingdom, Japan, China, postcolonialism, nationalismAbstract
Burma was integrated into the Japanese empire after more than a century of British colonial rule. Since obtaining independence in 1948, Burma has experienced a permanent state of internal strife, insurgencies, civil war, and military dictatorships. Myanmar started transitioning to liberal democracy in 2008, and after the 2015 general elections, it seemed that the process would create a modern functional state. The 2021 military coup reignited the flames of a brutal civil war, including the ongoing Rohingya genocide. The paper aims to explain the leading causes of failure to produce a stable democratic nation-state and end the cycle of violence. How can we expect the ongoing civil war to end, and what will be its consequences? Are there other outside relevant political actors that can influence the outcome? The methodology is linked with the realist constructivist and path dependence theories. The historical narrative, speech analysis of key political figures, and quantitative measurements of ethnicity and religion suggest that the root cause of the problem is that Myanmar was created as an artificial colonial state without taking into account any local or regional specificity.
References
Andrews, T. (2024). UN rights expert urges global action to halt Myanmar junta atrocities. Retrieved from UN News Global
perspective Human stories: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147746.
Barkin, S. (2010). Realist constructivism rethinking international relations theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bünte, M. (2022). Ruling but not Governing: Tutelary Regimes and the Case of Myanmar. Government and Opposition, Volume
, pp. 336–352.
Bynum, E. (2021). Myanmar’s Spring Revolution. Retrieved from The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project:
https://acleddata.com/2021/07/22/myanmars-spring-revolution/.
Commission for International Justice and Accountability (2022). Investigation into the crimes againts minorities in Myanmar.
Retrieved from https://cijaonline.org/myanmar-armed-forces.
Country Economy (2021). Burma - Myanmar - Human Development Index - HDI. Retrieved from
https://countryeconomy.com/hdi/burma.
Debnath, K.; Chatterjee, S. & Afzal, A. (2022). Natural Resources and Ethnic Conflict: A Geo-strategic Understanding of the
Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar. Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, pp. 186-207.
Evans, H. G. (2021). Applying R2P to Myanmar. Retrieved from https://www.globalr2p.org/publications/applying-r2p-tomyanmar/.
Frontier. (2023). Dumping the dollar: The junta embraces the Chinese yuan. Retrieved from
https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/dumping-the-dollar-the-junta-embraces-the-chinese-yuan/.
Fumagalli, M. & Kemmerling, A. (2024). Development aid and domestic regional inequality: the case of Myanmar. Eurasian
Geography and Economics, Volume 65, pp. 486-515.
Hlaing, K. Y. (2012). Understanding Recent Political Changes in Myanmar. Contemporary Southeast Asia, Volume 34, No. 2,
pp. 197-216.
Human Rights Watch (2017). Sexual Violence against Rohingya Women and Girls in Burma. Retrieved from
Kipgen, N. (2022). Democratisation of Myanmar. New York: Routledge.
Kramer, T. (2020). Neither war nor peace: failed ceasefires and dispossession in Myanmar’s ethnic borderlands. The Journal
of Peasant Studies, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 476-496.
Lee, J. M. (2024). Will Myanmar Become the Next North Korea? Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2024/03/willmyanmar-
become-the-next-north-korea/.
Lintner, B. (2023). The Mirage of the ‘United Front’ in Myanmar. Retrieved from https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guestcolumn/
the-mirage-of-the-united-front-in-myanmar.html.
Loong, S. (2023). In Myanmar, Generation Z Goes to War . Current History, Volume 122, Issue 843, pp. 137–142.
Macrotrends (2024). Myanmar GDP 1960-2024. Retrieved from https://www.macrotrends.net/globalmetrics/
countries/MMR/myanmar/gdp-gross-domestic-product.
Martuscelli, P. N.; Ahmed, B. & Sammonds, P. (2024). Defying Genocide in Myanmar: Everyday Resistance Narratives of
Rohingyas. Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 26, No. 1. Patrícia Nabuco Martuscelli, Bayes Ahmed & Peter Sammonds.
McCready, A. (2023). Cheaper than beer’: Laos meth prices plummet as Myanmar chaos fuels trade. Retrieved from
Minority Rights Group. (2023). Myanmar Communities. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/country/myanmar/.
Munck, B. D. (2022). Assembling Path Dependency and History: An Actor-Network Approach. The Journal of
Interdisciplinary History, Volume 52, No. 4, pp. 565–588.
Myers, L. (2024). Mismanaging of the unmanageable: China tries to play all sides in Myanmar’s metastasizing civil war.
Retrieved from https://warontherocks.com/2024/03/mismanaging-of-the-unmanageable-china-tries-to-play-all-sides-inmyanmars-
metastasizing-civil-war/.
OEC World (2024). Country profile: Burma. Retrieved from https://oec.world/en/profile/country/mmr.
Regan, H. (2024, April 12). Middle class wiped out: Half of Myanmar’s people forced into poverty by civil war, UN report
finds. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/12/asia/myanmar-poverty-civil-war-intl-hnk/index.html.
Statista. (2023). Gross enrollment rate for tertiary education in Myanmar from 2011 to 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1356233/myanmar-enrollment-rate-for-secondary-education/.
Stokke, K. & Aung, S. (2019). Transition to Democracy or Hybrid Regime? The Dynamics and Outcomes of Democratization
in Myanmar. The European Journal of Development Research, Volume 32, pp. 274-293.
Sun, Y. (2024). Operation 1027: Changing the tides of the Myanmar civil war? Retrieved from
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/operation-1027-changing-the-tides-of-the-myanmar-civil-war/.
Taylor, L. (2024). Global Initiative Against Organized Crime. Retrieved from Mind the gap Organized crime on the rise in
Myanmar as resilience wanes: https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/myanmar-organized-crime-resilience-ocindex/.
Thawnghmung, A. M. (2022). “National Races” in Myanmar. Retrieved from Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History:
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (2024). Myanmar: Resistance to the Military Junta Gains Momentum.
Retrieved from https://acleddata.com/conflict-watchlist-2024/myanmar/.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2023). Situation of human rights in Myanmar since 1 February 2022
- Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved from
The World Bank (2024). GDP per capita (current US$) - OECD members. Retrieved from
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=OE.
Thein, E. & Inaba, K. (2023). Sources of Myanmar’s economic growth during 2010–2015: input–output analysis. The Official
Journal of the Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies, Volume 12, No. 1, pp. 1-26.
Thein-Lemelson, S. M. (2021). Politicide and the Myanmar coup. Anthropology Today, Volume 32, No. 2, pp. 3-5.
Thuzar, M. (2023). How Has China’s Belt and Road Initiative Impacted Southeast Asian Countries? Retrieved from
Tonkin, D. (2024). In defence of Aung San Suu Kyi. Retrieved from https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/defenceaung-
san-suu-kyi.
Trading Economics (2024). Myanmar Inflation Rate. Retrieved from https://tradingeconomics.com/myanmar/inflation-cpi.
U.S. Department of State (2022). 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Burma. Retrieved from
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/burma/.
U.S. Department of State (2022). Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya in Burma. Retrieved
from https://www.state.gov/burma-genocide/.
Vrieze, P. (2023). Joining the Spring Revolution or Charting Their Own Path? Ethnic Minority Strategies following the 2021
Myanmar Coup. Asian Survey, Volume 63, No. 1, pp. 90–120.
World Inequality Database. (2024). Evolution of average income, Myanmar, 1950-2022. Retrieved from
https://wid.world/country/myanmar/.
Worldometer. (2024). Myanmar Demographics. Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/myanmardemographics/.
Zan, H. H. (2023). Foreign Investment in Myanmar Plunges 60% on-Year in First Quarter. Retrieved from
Zaw, M. & Tønnesson, S. (2023). Counting Myanmar’s Dead: Reported Civilian Casualties since the 2021 Military Coup.
Retrieved from The Peace Research Institute Oslo: https://www.prio.org/publications/13516.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 EIRP Proceedings
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
- for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.