Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar

The political liberalization that began in Myanmar in 2011 generated hopes that a decades-old, multifront civil war between the regime and various ethnic armed organizations could be resolved peacefully. The ethnic groups accepted a cease-fire and entered into negotiations with the military, who were joined on the government side in 2015 by the newly elected civilian authorities under the pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi. This volume provides a close-up view of politics in Myanmar during this period. The authors show how the divided, indecisive, and ultimately hard-line central authorities enmeshed the ethnic organizations in complex, slow-moving negotiations, created new institutions that seemed democratic but actually solidified the control of the state, and fostered divisions among and within ethnic communities, thus weakening their bargaining power. The ethnic areas enjoyed some infrastructure, economic, and social service improvements during this period, but the talks made no progress on the core issue of ethnic federalism. The “decade of missed opportunity,” as the authors call it, ended with the military coup of 2021 and the renewal of armed struggle across the country.