Tracking the civil war: What to expect in 2025? (Keynote of the Forum) Morgan Michaels, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
Myanmar’s post-coup crisis in numbers Su Mon Thant, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED)
The upcoming elections: Do they matter? Michael Lidauer, independent researcher
The Federal Democracy Charter: Viable pathway to peace? Michael Breen and Soe Htet, University of Melbourne
Panel on rebel governance Zaw Tuseng, Director, Myanmar Policy Institute, New York; Su Mon Thazin Aung, Visiting Fellow, Myanmar Studies Programme, ISEAS–Yusuf Ishak Institute, Singapore; James Davies, independent analyst; and Tony Neil, London School of Economics
Are you a Myanmar researcher looking to design a new research project? Or are you developing a research proposal to apply for a PhD? The Myanmar Research Network at University of Melbourne in collaboration with the Myanmar Research Centre at Australian National University (ANU) – and with support of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – invite expressions of interest for Myanmar researchers to join an online social science research skills program in May-June 2025. The program will involve three online workshops and individual mentoring sessions aimed at supporting participants to develop a research proposal fora long term research project. This could, for example, be used for applying for research funding or for a university PhD program.
To be eligible you must: -Be a researcher of Myanmar nationality -Have a postgraduate research qualification in social sciences (e.g., Masters’ degree with research thesis component, or a coursework Masters’ degree with other experience comparable to a research thesis). -Be able to demonstrate research interests and experience in social sciences eg politics, policy, anthropology, development studies. (Expressions of interest in other fields such as medicine, law, agriculture etc will not be considered). -Have plans to conduct a long term social science research project (eg PhD) -Have high-level spoken and written English
Expectations of participants
Participants will be expected to:
-Attend all workshops and mentoring sessions -Produce an English language research project proposal – this will be short, for example 4-5 pages -Present the research proposal to the participant group Intended outcomes
The program is designed to support researchers: -To develop relevant, clear and feasible research proposals -To develop analytical skills in research design -To meet other Myanmar social science researchers who have similar goals
This week’s New Pubs features Aung exploring “the principle contradiction between insurgency and autonomy” in the revolution; Lutfa and Shanto on the Arakan Army’s relation to Myanmar’s ethnic politics; and a book by Jacobs on Anglo-Burmese history and culture.
See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.
Conflict-related sexual violence in Myanmar: The role of the state
Date: Tuesday 25 March 2025 Time zone: 5.30–6.30pm AEDT, 1–2pm MMT, 8.30-9.30am CEST zoom here
Abstract
The prevention of Conflict-related Sexual Violence (CRSV) often relies on states to lead prevention and response mechanisms at the domestic level. However, state actors, such as the military, are frequently responsible for this violence. Can states play an effective role in preventing and responding to CRSV? This presentation, drawing from a forthcoming book, provides a deeper understanding of the state’s role as a prevention actor and explains why strategies aimed at preventing CRSV often fail and can sometimes even result in more harm.
Myanmar is a politically complex state that has experienced several decades of armed conflict, persistent military regimes, and a high prevalence of CRSV incidents committed by the state armed forces, the Tatmadaw. The book, Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Myanmar: The Role of the State, offers unique insights into CRSV prevention efforts in Myanmar, tracing the implementation process of the Joint Communiqué (JC), an agreement signed between the Myanmar government and the United Nations to effectively prevent and respond to CRSV.
The book is based on a comprehensive qualitative analysis of internal and public documents, and interviews with multiple stakeholders over a two-year period. It reveals how the gendered power structure and formal and informal practices of Myanmar’s state institutions constantly impeded the implementation process of the JC and offered a very limited political opportunity structure for local women’s civil society organisations (CSOs) to be involved in the JC implementation. A significant portion of the data in this study was collected in 2021 following the military coup in Myanmar. The author describes her experiences as a local researcher in solidarity with the local research participants experiencing the brutality of the military crackdown and conducting data collection in a particularly challenging context.
Dr Phyu Phyu Oo is a Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) at Griffith University. She holds a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in International Relations from Griffith University. Her research focuses on addressing critical issues related to sexual and gender-based violence in conflict and other crises. With over a decade of experience as a practitioner in development and humanitarian settings across the Asia-Pacific region, she brings both academic expertise and practical insight to her work. Dr Oo was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2014 and a Griffith Postgraduate Scholarship in 2019. Her forthcoming book, Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Myanmar: The Role of the State, was recognised with the John Legge Thesis Prize for the best thesis in Asian Studies by the Asian Studies Association of Australia.
This week’s New Pubs features Holliday et al on post-coup humanitarian engagement by both ‘regional’ and ‘international’ actors; Russell and Gaborit on gender and the post-coup reconsideration of how hpon can be polluted; and an edited volume on youth, community, and democracy with eight chapters on Myanmar.
See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.
The Trump Administration’s sweeping cuts to scholarship grants for Myanmar students and programmes for refugee resettlement and humanitarian assistance for communities affected by the ongoing conflict in Myanmar have added more uncertainties and challenges to the country’s humanitarian crisis, which has spiralled since 2021. Communities in the hard-to-reach regions in Myanmar face a bleak future, as do many young people whose education and employment prospects were disrupted by the 2021 coup, and exacerbated by conscription enforcement since 2024. The abrupt withdrawal of assistance has also left neighbouring and other donor countries with added challenges to filling the funding gap for Myanmar’s urgent needs. In this webinar, a long-time Myanmar watcher and scholar, and researchers working on aspects of Myanmar’s humanitarian needs and responses will discuss questions and concerns arising from the aid cuts in 2025.
About the Speakers
Mary P. Callahan is associate professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She teaches classes on Southeast Asian politics, Human Rights in Asia, and The Politics of Development Assistance. On leave from the university, she spent twelve years based in Yangon, Myanmar, where she carried out extensive research on electoral politics, gender and conflict, and foreign assistance politics. She is currently working on a book manuscript on revolutionary politics in the Dry Zone.
Rosalinn Zahau is Senior Legal Researcher at the Myanmar Policy Institute, an independent and non-profit organisation. Her prior professional experience includes stations with local and international NGOs in South and Southeast Asia and the US. Before the 2021 coup, Rosalinn worked in Myanmar as a human-rights-focused research consultant and program officer for various non-profit organizations. Since 2021, she has worked on refugee rights, strengthening civil society groups, and protecting human rights in Myanmar.
Surachanee Sriyai is a Visiting Fellow with the Media, Technology and Society Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. She is also the interim director of the Center for Sustainable Humanitarian Action with Displaced Ethnic Communities (SHADE) under the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University.
Friday, March 14, 2025 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT Union C (2nd Floor, Hyatt)
Each year the BSG holds a meeting to discuss awards, new projects, publications, and how BSG have spent your dues money this year (typically on supporting graduate students to attend AAS). It sounds formal, but is quite casual and is a good way to meet the Burma Studies scholars – all are very much welcome. We also recognize that not everyone can join physically, and so the BSG leadership has provided a virtual option as well.
Relatedly, please pay your dues. $10 for students, and $20 for non-student members goes a long way in aggregate. Donate here: https://members.asianstudies.org/donate-now (please choose “Burma Studies Group” and enter the amount. You can always give more! )
This week’s New Pubs features Saba and Akbarzadeh on China’s promotion of authoritarianism in Myanmar; Ganesan on why Thailand’s strategy of dealing with post-coup Myanmar deviates from ASEAN’s; and Soe Win on the impact of war on women’s lives in Burma.
See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.
Repositioning the Bamar identity in the context of establishing a Bamar state
The proposal to establish a Bamar state, introduced in 1961 in Taunggyi as part of ‘The Shan Federal Proposal’, aimed to promote equality among Burma’s eight major ethnic groups by assigning each group its state. This was seen as a potential solution to the civil war that had been ongoing since 1949. The idea emphasised equality within a democratic federation. However, it stalled after the military coup in 1962 and remained dormant until 1988. The proposal re-emerged as a policy option at the Union Peace Conference – 21st Century Panglong, held from 31 August to 4 September 2016 in Naypyidaw, and gained attention during the 2021 revolution against the military regime.
Currently, organisations such as the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), the National Unity Government (NUG), and the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), along with key ethnic armed organisations like the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Arakan Army (AA), and Karen National Union (KNU), have not formally adopted this proposal. However, some armed forces formed after the 2021 coup, bearing the identity of Bamar, such as the Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA), the Burma Liberation Democratic Front (BLDF), the Burma National Revolutionary Army (BNRA), and the Bamar Army founded in 2025, endorse the creation of a Bamar state in their founding statements and position papers. This idea is also included in the ‘Standard Federal Constitution of the Federal Union of Myanmar’, issued by the Federal Law Academy on 11 January this year. Online discussions organised by these stakeholders have shown support for this concept. However, the current identity politics within the revolutionary context underscores the urgent need for a clear plan to implement this agenda.
A critical issue that demands immediate attention is defining who will constitute the members of the proposed Bamar state and who will be recognised as Bamar ethnic people eligible for representation and entitlements within the proposed federation. This presentation aims to outline the evolution of Bamar identity over time and explore its role in the ongoing debate regarding establishing a Bamar state as a necessary solution to Burma’s protracted civil war.
Speaker
Phyo Win Latt began his career as a freelance journalist in 2003 before joining the local business magazine Living Color. There, he initially served as a reporter and later advanced to the role of editor at The Voice Weekly, also published by Living Color Media Group. In 2005, he enrolled in the Master of Arts program in International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University, completing his degree in 2006.
For the past 15 years, Phyo has lived in Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, engaging in various studies, professional endeavours, and volunteer activities with organisations dedicated to human rights, migrant issues, and refugee affairs. During this time, he gained invaluable experience working alongside journalists, politicians, academics, political and human rights activists, students, and trade unionists in multiple countries, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
In 2020, he was awarded a PhD in history from the National University of Singapore, with his thesis titled ‘Protecting Amyo: The Emergence of Xenophobic Nationalism in Colonial Burma (1906-1941)’. Chair: Zaw Yadanar Hein, zaw.hein@anu.edu.au
Burma Studies Group 