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Myanmar Study Group: Final Report

Anatomy of the Military Coup and Recommendations for U.S. Response

By: Myanmar Study Group

Publication Type: Report

In March 2021, the Myanmar Study Group was organized by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in response to the evolving conflict in Myanmar following the military coup of February 1, 2021. To support U.S. policy toward Myanmar, the Institute convened a study group of nine prominent experts on Myanmar and Asian affairs from April through September 2021. The study group held five discussions on topics of critical relevance to the crisis in Myanmar, supplemented by consultations with key stakeholders in the country and the region. Although convened by USIP, the views and recommendations contained in the report are solely those of the Myanmar Study Group, not USIP.

Executive Summary

Today’s crisis in Myanmar directly challenges interests and values that are foundations of U.S. foreign policy: democracy, human rights, rule of law, prosperity, and security. It would be an abrogation of those foundations were the United States to ignore or neglect the tragedy unfolding in Myanmar today. The crisis in Myanmar also presents an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate its commitment to diplomatic engagement that promotes a rules-based international order.

The United States and its major Asian and European allies share many geostrategic interests in Myanmar, the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia. For the United States, which is a leading source of foreign development assistance in Southeast Asia and key trade partner to the region, the possibilities offered by a free and prosperous Myanmar—given its strategic location, wealth of resources, and educated and widely pro-American population—are of vital interest.

Under the current circumstances, Myanmar is highly vulnerable to powerful external and internal forces seeking to dominate its territory given the instability, dire poverty, and lack of effective governance and rule of law brought on by the February 1, 2021 military coup. Among the most immediate of these threats—in addition to the Myanmar military and its supporters—are China, Russia, and international criminal networks.

In particular, the United States risks ceding important geostrategic influence to China and others in the region if it fails to take a more active role in the current conflict. Myanmar could also become a haven for criminal groups to operate from unregulated spaces, protected by the corrupt junta, elevating U.S. concerns about the rise of international organized crime in Asia that also targets the United States. Myanmar’s military has already demonstrated a wanton disregard for regional stability by causing serial mass migrations into neighboring countries. A chaotic Myanmar also risks becoming a petri dish for new COVID variants and other deadly diseases in ungoverned or unreachable areas of the country.

The United States is deeply committed to promoting human rights, pursuing accountability and justice for the military’s abuses, and supporting survivors of human rights violations. The United States has allocated more than $1.3 billion for assisting Rohingya refugees who were displaced across the region after the military’s atrocities in 2016 and 2017. These investments have been undermined by the coup, rendering the prospects for the safe return of Rohingya and other refugees impossible in the near future.

The United States cannot afford to treat the grave setback in Myanmar as a distant distraction of little consequence to its larger interests in Asia.

Key Assessments and Findings

The following assessments and findings are based on the deliberations of the Myanmar Study Group over the course of discussions between April and September 2021. The study group’s expertise was supplemented by consultations with key stakeholders in Myanmar and throughout the region to ensure that the perspectives of those most directly affected were taken into account.

1. Myanmar’s February 1, 2021 coup, staged by military leaders to topple the democratically elected government, has reversed ten years of progress and reform, returning governance to autocratic military rule.

2. Perpetrators of the coup seriously misjudged the determination of the majority of the civilian population to refuse to return to military dictatorship and relinquish the freedoms gained under elected government. Led by youth groups and civil servants in the newly formed Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), people took to the streets in mass peaceful protest, later forming several political coalitions to challenge the legitimacy of the coup regime.

3. Soon after the coup, the CDM was joined by a faction of the deposed elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which formed the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, to serve as the interim elected legislature. In turn, the National Unity Government (NUG), including several ethnic minority leaders, was formed to serve as the executive branch. While the NUG has strong public support, especially among the Bamar ethnic majority, the diverse anti-coup movement, which includes a range of ethnic and religious minority organizations and armed groups, has failed to fully unify because of residual distrust between the NLD, civil society, and ethnic minority communities. The NUG, civil society, and some ethnic minority representatives, including key political parties, established a negotiation platform, the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), to discuss a political roadmap for a future Myanmar. Through the NUCC, the anti-coup movement has achieved agreement on a range of topics, including the abolition of the 2008 constitution, but negotiations on interethnic power sharing and a future federal democratic governance structure remain fraught.

4. The violence of the military response led some protesters to flee to remote areas under the control of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), where they received refuge and military training to protect their communities from the marauding army. Fanning out across the country, they organized into a multitude of local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) in villages, towns, and cities in the center of the country to challenge military and police forces, local administrators, and civilians connected with the junta. By October, PDFs were operating in most of the country’s townships but remained highly atomized in their struggle against military rule, lacking unified leadership or common longer-term objectives.

5. Several EAOs, such as the Arakan, Kachin, Karen, Shan, and Wa forces, have used the situation to expand their territorial control in defiance of military domination, gaining significantly greater autonomy over their own administration. PDF fighters have gained battle experience by joining EAOs in fighting the military. All EAOs hold in common a bottom line that the military’s actions have deeply damaged their security and economic prospects but are far from a shared vision of Myanmar’s future.

6. Twelve months on, the violence has descended into full-scale civil war. This fighting has resulted in significant casualties, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced internally and across borders as the army deploys heavy weapons and air assaults, wiping out entire villages in attempts to dislodge EAOs and PDFs. Yet EAOs are still gaining territory and the PDFs continue to expand in size, capability, and coordination, inflicting significant damage to military forces and local administration.

7. A collapse in governance has sparked a multidimensional crisis. The economy is in free-fall; the COVID-19 pandemic is raging virtually unchecked in the absence of a viable health system; food is scarce to nonexistent in many areas; local administrative and service infrastructure is deteriorating under attack by warring forces; lawlessness has emerged in communities as the army orders the police to take repressive actions, negating their law enforcement role; public education has been decimated; and the telecommunications system is collapsing.

8. The relative freedom and improving quality of life that Myanmar enjoyed for a decade is now a thing of the past. Draconian new laws have been introduced to jail and prosecute senior NLD government officials and punish political protesters, striking civil servants, and civil society activists. Ethnic activists and faith leaders, especially in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, and northern Shan States, have also been targeted. Journalists have been jailed, and the majority of free media outlets have been banned, even as coup authorities use government media and social media platforms liberally to spread falsehoods about their achievements and to promote hate speech.

9. The international community has reacted to the coup with alarm, but largely failed to mount an effective response:

• The five-point strategy for restoring elected government in Myanmar, put forward by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has been ignored by the coup leaders despite their having agreed to it. ASEAN’s decision to exclude the head of the military regime, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, from the October ASEAN leaders’ summit and the November ASEAN-China dialogue demonstrated a willingness to apply pressure. The bloc remains deeply divided over next steps. With Cambodia assuming the ASEAN presidency in 2022 and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s controversial January visit to Naypyitaw to meet with General Min Aung Hlaing, it remains to be seen how ASEAN will proceed to deal with the junta.
• China has blocked UN efforts to address the crisis, instead pushing for the international response to be managed by ASEAN. Simultaneously, China is trying to hedge its bets on the coup regime by supporting efforts of the most powerful actors, including both the junta and the EAOs, to consolidate power in their areas so that it may eventually rescue its infrastructure investments. China has initiated engagement with the coup regime and met with senior coup figures. It has shunned the NUG and PDFs yet maintains limited ties with the NLD, pressing the coup regime not to dissolve the party. Overall, the junta’s dependence on China’s political and economic support presents Beijing with a golden opportunity to secure one-sided agreements that will harness Myanmar to its southwestern provinces. China may soon discover, however, that the junta lacks all capacity to deliver on any such agreements.
• Russia has stepped in to serve as a key security partner to the junta, sending senior military officials to join key events in Naypyitaw, supporting the junta’s establishment of a new coast guard in October, selling the junta an unspecified number of weapons systems and components since the coup, and even making a port call in Myanmar as the military was launching a scorched-earth campaign in the northwestern part of the country. Russia’s posture has strengthened China’s strategic interests by ensuring that China is not the only major country supporting the junta.
• India ’s response to events in Myanmar has been deeply conflicted. On the one hand, India fears the coup offers China an opportunity to gain advantage with the military, leading New Delhi to avoid offending the military leadership by continuing to supply lethal military equipment. On the other, India is a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)—along with Australia, Japan, and the United States—and its northeastern states have strong cross-border ethnic ties and a deep affinity for Myanmar’s pro-democracy actors. The Indian Defense Ministry has begun to enhance relations with the opposition National Unity Government as PDF strength and activity grows.
• The community of Western democracies, led by the United States, has condemned the coup; lodged a variety of sanctions against military and coup leaders, their supporters, and businesses; provided technical and other forms of nonmilitary support to the NUG and the CDM; and provided humanitarian assistance through nongovernmental organizations and UN agencies. It has also sustained high-level engagement with Asian allies Japan and Korea as well as key Southeast Asian states, including Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand, on the response to the crisis.
• The United Nations has persisted—against junta obstruction—in developing a response to the COVID-19 emergency in Myanmar through the Global Fund, COVAX, and the GAVI Alliance to ensure that the regime allows vaccines and anti-COVID assistance to reach all needy communities. When the UN General Assembly reconvened in September, an agreement between the United States and China made it possible for Myanmar’s Permanent Representative appointed by the NLD government to remain in place; this deal was renewed in early December, with further action to come only later in 2022. This dealt a blow to the junta’s attempt to seat its own representative, but the agreement stipulated that the Permanent Representative would limit public engagements.

What Comes Next?

The prospects are extremely low that the military, having lost the support of the majority of the population, can regain enough control of the country to govern it. Any elections staged by the junta regime will be rejected by the population and international community as illegitimate. The course of events since the coup has ruled out the eventuality of returning Myanmar’s governance to the status quo ante with an NLD government under the 2008 constitution.

Possible outcomes are boundless and unpredictable but include

• continuation over the short to medium term of chaotic and increasingly bloody civil war that could become internecine,
• partial or complete secession from the union by some of the ethnic minority groups as their armies gain ground against the military,
• consolidation of harsh military control over some parts of the country,
• failure of the opposition movement to unite effectively around an agreed future for the country, or
• emergence of an empowered opposition government conceived as an inclusive federal democracy with security forces reconfigured along federal lines, some early signs of which are already emerging in conflict areas where opposition forces and EAOs are increasingly taking over local administration, health services, and security control.

Key Recommendations for U.S. Policy

Because of the persistent domestic anti-coup movement, the Myanmar military is perhaps as weak and vulnerable as it has ever been. Although the United States has few options for influencing Myanmar’s current military leadership to abandon its campaign of violence and oppression against Myanmar’s people, it could support five lines of effort that, in combination with ongoing resistance strategies in Myanmar, might alter the generals’ calculations:

1. Strengthen trust and unity within the opposition.

The opposition movement comprises diverse actors, many of whom were competitors before the coup and remain deeply divided over interests and historical grievances. Although united around a shared revulsion toward the military and a common strategy to make the country ungovernable under the junta, the movement will need to build greater trust and unity if it is to succeed in defeating the military and—more important—in rebuilding a war-torn country. The United States should support dialogue and reconciliation efforts, from the community level to the national level, that help achieve this objective. If successful, these efforts would not only increase the likelihood of the movement prevailing in the near term but could be a first step toward long-term sustainable peace in Myanmar. The United States should also emphasize the need to incorporate civilian protection in opposition strategies to guard against extrajudicial killing and avoid an endless cycle of retribution.

2. Strain the military’s resources and legitimacy with international pressure.

The Myanmar military is severely depleted and, due to popular resentment, faces mounting difficulty recruiting troops and administrative staff for the State Administrative Council (SAC), the caretaker government formed by the junta. The country’s economic deterioration further constrains the resources available to the military to consolidate control. Negotiated efforts to squeeze the generals with an expanded international arms embargo and coordinated sanctions would go a step further. The military’s domestic legitimacy—including among its soldiers—is at an all-time low. Continuing efforts to exclude the coup regime from international forums, such as ASEAN and the United Nations, would weaken its remaining domestic legitimacy as a governing institution and increase the incentives for defections, desertions, and noncompliance.

The U.S. government has already placed a wide range of targeted sanctions on military leaders, senior members of the coup government, military industries, and crony businesses, but the impact of these sanctions is unclear. Targeted unilateral sanctions are unlikely to have a decisive effect, but a coordinated and targeted sanctions regime among U.S. allies and regional partners could deliver a powerful blow to the military, given its diminished circumstances. Conversely, if general sanctions were imposed, the impact would likely fall most heavily on the civilian population.

More broadly, the United States should intensify diplomatic interaction with key neighboring countries, especially India and Thailand; work closely with ASEAN; and explore ways for the Quad to apply pressure and support efforts that marginalize the coup regime and encourage restoration of civilian democratic governance. To avoid misunderstandings and ensure active channels of communication, the United States should stay open to consultations with China, to the extent that China is willing to engage. Sustained high-level engagements, including the possible appointment of a senior U.S. envoy or coordinator, would send a strong signal of U.S. intentions to both the United States’ partners and competitors in the region.

3. Lead an international effort to get humanitarian assistance to civilian populations under siege in Myanmar.

The chaotic conditions in the country and the hostility of the coup regime to foreign “interference” make it difficult, though not impossible, for the United States to channel humanitarian and other forms of assistance through civil society organizations. Given the various constraints and the need to remain adaptive in a highly volatile environment, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department should evaluate their procurement and assistance requirements and procedures to ensure adequate flexibility to support local civil society organizations (which know best how to deliver assistance in conflict areas) and to prioritize partner security. It is also incumbent on the United States in the near term to act in concert with regional allies and international organizations, such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, as they respond. Coordinated international action could help remove obstacles to getting material assistance to the country’s beleaguered civilian population, help ensure that the coup regime remains internationally isolated, provide material and moral support to the democratic opposition, and ultimately lay a viable foundation for the country’s stabilization and reconstruction under an elected civilian government.

4. Expand relations with the civilian nonstate authorities that govern significant parts of the country, especially those democratically elected by ethnic minorities.

This would recognize the nascent rapport and practical collaboration that has developed between the minority and majority populations opposing the coup. Several of these authorities and the EAOs with whom they affiliate are collaborating closely with other resistance groups and gaining ground against the Myanmar military. In addition to providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable minority populations through nonstate authorities, the United States should help the authorities think through how they can best collaborate to achieve an inclusive union for all the country’s residents. The United States should further explore enhanced dialogue with nonstate authorities and encourage them to embrace democracy, respect human rights, and deploy their resources toward ending the coup regime.

5. Develop a transition plan resistant to another military power grab or the explosion of other forms of violence.

The United States should supply technical and other nonmilitary assistance to opposition actors involved in transition planning, including but not limited to the NUG and the NUCC.

To promote democratic values, sustain the development of Myanmar’s leaders, and deepen U.S. relationships with Myanmar’s future leaders, the United States should not only provide protection and support through educational grants and fellowships to preserve Myanmar’s wealth of intellectual talent that has emerged within the younger generation, it should also support civil society organizations in Myanmar and outside the country. This would encourage the emergence of a strong cadre of civilian leaders who can formulate viable future plans for a democratic federal Myanmar and build a prosperous economy. The United States should leverage this moment of relative unity against a shared enemy—the junta—to build interreligious and interethnic trust and pursue reconciliation.

To support transitional justice, the United States should provide robust assistance to local initiatives to document the ongoing atrocities and war crimes being committed by the junta. This support should aim to complement international accountability measures, including by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, while exploring ways to use documentation to build international pressure on the regime.

●   ●   ●

The military’s ill-considered coup has triggered a revolution in Myanmar that promises a successful conclusion to decades of effort by the United States and its international partners to nourish the seeds of democracy and bring an end to one of the world’s oldest military dictatorships.  These seeds have clearly taken root in the younger generation willing to pay with their lives to keep democratic progress alive. The United States’ support for them must not fail at this critical moment.

Note: This above text originally stated that Russia sold $2.3 billion of weapons to Myanmar in the months following the coup. That figure, based on reporting by The Irrawaddy in September 2021, was for weapons deals Russia signed with multiple countries, including Myanmar, in August 2021. The total of Russian transfers of and new contracts for weapons and components to the junta in 2021 was likely in the range of $300 million to $1.3 billion.

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The history of prehistoric archaeology in Myanmar: a brief review

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Myanmar’s (also called Burma) critical location at the juncture between South and East Asia plays a significant role in shaping the region’s cultural trajectory, particularly in terms of long-range population migrations and cultural interactions within the framework of southern China and Southeast Asia. This paper summarizes the history and practices of prehistoric archaeological research in Myanmar by collecting, sorting, and analyzing global publications from the last 150 years. We outline five significant periods in the development of research on prehistoric archaeology in Myanmar: the roots in the 1870 to 1930s; the beginnings, between the 1930 and 1950s; stagnation in the 1950s through 1970s; recovery in the 1970s through 1990s; and continuous development since the 1990s. Finally, we briefly discuss the features and hotspots of prehistoric archaeological research in Myanmar, as well as current constraints and future directions for the field.

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Wei, X., Liang, T., Soe, M.T. et al. The history of prehistoric archaeology in Myanmar: a brief review. asian archaeol 7 , 203–219 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-023-00075-3

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URKUND offers a fully-automated system for handling plagiarism. In short, the students send their documents to their teachers by e-mail. Along the electronic route between student and teacher, the documents are checked against three central source areas: Internet, published material and student material. If any document displays similarities with the content in the three sources, the system will flag it for possible plagiarism. An analysis overview is generated and sent by e-mail to the teacher concerned. The analysis overview presents in a simplified form the information needed by the teacher in order to determine if plagiarism has occurred.

ProQuest Central

ProQuest Central database serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels. Covering more than 160 subjects areas. It is the largest aggregated data base of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos. It includes following 30 databases.

1. ABI/INFORM Complete 2. Accounting & Tax 3. Banking Information Source 4. Canadian Newsstand 5. CBCA Complete 6. Hoover’s Company Profiles 7. OxResearch 8. Pharmaceutical News Index 9. ProQuest Asian Business & Reference 10. ProQuest Biology Journals 11. ProQuest Career and Technical Education 12. ProQuest Computing 13. ProQuest Criminal Justice 14. ProQuest Education Journals 15. ProQuest European Business 16. ProQuest Family Health 17. ProQuest Health & Medical Complete 18. ProQuest Health Management 19. ProQuest Military Collection 20. ProQuest Newsstand 21. ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source 22. ProQuest Political Science 23. ProQuest Psychology Journals 24. ProQuest Religion 25. ProQuest Research Library 26. ProQuest Science Journals 27. ProQuest Social Science Journals 28. ProQuest Sociology 29. ProQuest Telecommunications 30. Snapshots

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global is the world’s most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of Universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.

You have access to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: Business, Health & Medicine, History, Literature & Language, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and the Arts.

iThenticate: Plagiarism Detection Software

iThenticate or similar software to detect and deter plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Researchers can identify and address potential areas of concern from early in the writing process by using iThenticate themselves.

Myanmar Education Research and Learning Portal

The MERAL Portal is a project of the Myanmar Rectors’ Committee, National Education Policy Commission, Department of Higher Education, the Ministry of Education, with support from EIFL (Electronic information for Libraries) and the National Institute of Informatics, Japan. The MERAL Portal provides free and open access to research publications (from international and local journals, theses, conference papers, etc.) and to teaching and learning materials from Universities in Myanmar.

WORLD eBOOK LIBRARY

9,000,000 Research, Rare and Classic Full-Text eBooks and eDocuments fully downloadable, printable and shareable. It is daily used by millions of professional scholars as a primary source of classic and rare eBooks to substantiate their academic papers and prove their “originality”. It offers the most influential books in humanities, science and technology originally printed from the 10th till the 19th centuries. It is the only eBook database with digitally enhanced editions of scanned books from the top universities in USA and Canada. More than 1000 years worth of books conveniently searchable across 200 specialty collections. eBooks and eDocuments available in over 200 languages. Key academic subjects covered include: Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Economy, Management, Government, History, Agriculture, Medicine, Education, Fine Arts, Languages, Law, Literature, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Anthropology, and Technology.

American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications

ACS journals front file and back file – Full text and Comprehensive collection of journals in the chemical and related sciences. Includes access to about 40 journals published by the American Chemical Society.

iG Library – iG Publishing eBooks Collection

It includes more than 26,000 eBook titles – Arts & recreation (1580 tiles), Computer science, information & general works (1166 titles), History & geography (2084 titles), Language (118 titles), Literature (1734 titles), Philosophy and psychology (1209 titles), Religion (1324 titles), Science (2665 titles), Social sciences (9955 titles) and Technology (4837 titles).

OECD iLibrary

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was born on 30 September 1961. Today, 34 OECD member countries worldwide regularly turn to one another to identify problems, discuss and analyse them, and promote policies to solve them.

OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics and is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. It is the global knowledge base for OECD’s data and analysis. It contains all books and papers published since 1998 – as well as a vast collection of statistics, with data going back to the early 1960s.

OECD iLibrary also contains content published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and the International Transport Forum (ITF).

Content of OECD iLibrary 9,440 ebook titles 37,200 chapters 76,400 tables and graphs 3,800 articles 3,860 multilingual summaries 4,220 working papers 3,640 key tables 5 billion data points across 42 databases.

Skillsoft’s Books24x7® provides leading on demand business, technical and engineering content containing thousands of digitized “best in class” books, book summaries, research reports and best practices. The Books24x7 On Demand Platform enables users to search, browse, read and collaborate with other users of these vast professional libraries.

Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA)

The AGORA programme, set up by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) together with major publishers, enables developing countries to gain access to an outstanding digital library collection in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA provides a collection of up to 6,100 key journals and 5,800 books to 2,900 institutions in more than 100 countries. AGORA is designed to enhance the scholarship of the many thousands of students, faculty and researchers in agriculture and life sciences in the developing world. AGORA is one of the four programmes that make up Research4Life: AGORA, HINARI, OARE and ARDI.

The eTekkatho library contains over 1,700 full text academic resources. This second edition of the library covers education, human geography, physical geography, earth sciences and the environment along with supporting subjects of computer literacy, mathematics and English language. All the resources are selected and described by subject specialists.

The Journal of the Burma Research Society was the first academic journal devoted to Burma Studies. The journal started in 1911 about the same time as The Journal of the Siam Society. It was published in Burma but is no longer published today.

JBRS had 59 volumes spanning a period of 70 years, with a total of 377 authors writing about 631 subjects.  It comprises more than 132 issues with over 1,300 articles (more than 30,000 pages in total), and includes some 500 photos, graphs, charts and maps. Like the Journal of the Siam Society, JBRS was, and still is, the premier research journal on Burma.

JBRS was originally published by The Burma Research Society. From the start, the Burma Research Society represented a fusion of the energy and initiative of a generation of both Burmese and Europeans. These early leading luminaries included John S.Furnivall, Charles Duroiselle, U May Oung, Gordon Luce and U Pe Maung Tin. The society’s meetings and Journal were a forum for enthusiastic debate and research on Burma for seventy years.

The Burma Research Society was inaugurated on 29 March 1910 at a meeting held at the Bernard Free Library, Rangoon. Its aims were  “the investigation and encouragement of Art, Science and Literature in relation to Burma and the neighbouring countries”. In 1980, the Society celebrated its seventieth anniversary with a conference at Rangoon University, but was closed down soon after and its Journal ceased publication.

Online Database of Illustrations by Bagyi Aung Soe

www.aungsoeillustrations.org is an open-access online database of periodical and book illustrations and covers by Bagyi Aung Soe (1923/24–1990), Myanmar’s trailblazer of modern art, who was also her most prolific illustrator in the twentieth-century. It seeks to conserve the memory of this artistic, cultural and intellectual heritage, to raise awareness of its value and significance, and to foster scholarship on the topic. Users of the database may browse the collection according to the source, date or title of publication of the illustrations, or conduct a search using keywords in English (by 2017). Its contents may be shared freely on social media and be used for non-commercial and educational purposes on the terms stipulated here. High-resolution images may be available upon request.

Zotero is a free, open-source research tool that helps you collect, organize, and analyze research and share it in a variety of ways. Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software — the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references — and the best aspects of modern software and web applications, such as the ability to organize, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero interacts seamlessly with online resources: when it senses you are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, it can automatically extract and save complete bibliographic references. Zotero effortlessly transmits information to and from other web services and applications, and it runs both as a web service and offline on your personal devices.

Turnitin is a service for teaching staff to check the similarity of their students work to a range of sources in a classroom setting. Teaching staff can enable originality checking, which allows their students to submit their work to Turnitin.

Turnitin generates an Originality Report, detailing the similarity of the submitted paper to various sources. Teaching staff can use Turnitin as a learning tool, allowing students to generate a report and re-submit the paper after revision. Alternatively, they can use Turnitin purely as a policing tool, generating a final report without the option of resubmission or not allowing the students to view the Originality Report.

Turnitin assists instructors with detecting possible instances of plagiarism in students’ assignments. Instructors can submit assignments for checking on behalf of students, or instructors can authorise students to submit assignments to Turnitin. (Students cannot submit on their own accord.) Turnitin scans the document for similarities with a variety of databases. It then generates a report which highlights possible plagiarized paragraphs and provides the corresponding source(s).

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Myanmar Systematic Country Diagnostic Report

The report identifies priorities for Myanmar to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.

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A study by the World Bank finds that rice price volatility in Myanmar is the highest among net rice exporting countries in Asia.

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An Oxford Forum for New Perspectives On Burma/Myanmar

Doing research in myanmar: bridging the research gap to improve development policies.

• by teacircleoxford
• Posted on July 27, 2020 March 9, 2022

Francesco Obino, Zaw Oo and Edgard Rodriguez introduce a report on the state of social science research in Myanmar.

Introducing ‘Doing research in Myanmar’

The recent report, ‘ Doing Research in Myanmar’ , published in June 2020 by the Global Development Network (GDN), kick-started a flurry of important conversations about the state of Myanmar’s research culture and institutions, and what can be done to strengthen them.

Locally-grounded social science research remains key to democratic debate and planning for sustainable development, not only in Myanmar, but elsewhere in the developing world. Since 2014, GDN has been investigating the challenges of doing quality social-science research in developing countries. Working in partnership with local research institutions, who act as Principal Investigators, GDN’s Doing Research program aims to analyse weaknesses and opportunities that can be addressed through better-informed national research policy. In 2018, the GDN and Canada’s Knowledge for Democracy – Myanmar (K4DM) Initiative joined forces to include Myanmar in a new cohort of countries (along with Bolivia, Indonesia and Nigeria) undertaking Doing Research Assessments across 2019 and 2020. At the time, as part of an initial scoping exercise, GDN held a public talk at the Parami Institute in Yangon and attended other events that facilitated exchange with relevant stakeholders and potential collaborators, such as the Centre for Economic and Social Development (CESD). GDN has documented the progress within the new cohort of 2020 Reports in a recent article by Asia Research News.

A methodology for understanding national research systems

The Doing Research Assessment , a methodology developed by GDN, is designed to deliver an in-depth analysis of a country’s research system, and allow comparisons with other countries surveyed. It combines literature review, a survey of three main groups (researchers, research administrators and policy actors) and interviews with key informants. The data is captured in 54 indicators , which describe social science production, diffusion and uptake in the country. Ultimately, the reports identify ‘levers of change’, based on the evidence collected and discussed during the study, that can strengthen the environment for doing, circulating and using social science research in a country.

The reports also aim to spur research capacity and debates on the state of health of social science research systems. In December 2018, GDN hosted a methodological inception workshop with all four national teams in Delhi, GDN’s headquarters. This was followed by an intense year (2019) of desk research, interviews, and local consultations by each of the participating country teams, including Myanmar’s CESD. In October 2019, all teams met again in Bonn to take stock with their international advisors for a presentation and writing workshop on the side lines of the 19 th GDN conference “Knowledge for Sustainable Development: The Research-Policy Nexus” . Reports were to be launched in early 2020 but delayed due to the start of the pandemic.

Implementing the Doing Research Assessment in Myanmar met with a number of challenges: from lengthy authorization processes to the lack of familiarity of the research community, particularly in higher education, with concepts such as research policy, research council, ethics review processes and mentoring. The institutional research landscape proved extremely fragmented, with 174 higher education institutions scattered across the country, but only very few individuals formally trained in research, and less than 2% of academics in public universities having published a paper during their tenure. These aspects were discussed in a global public webinar on 27 May 2020, which launched the Myanmar Report, the first of the series, in conversation with institutions such as ANU Myanmar Research Centre —advisor to the Myanmar team–and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) —a key funder of research in the developing world.  Around 80 people from 8 countries took part in the 90-minute session, which revolved around the key fact that Myanmar’s social research community still lacks resources, despite nearly a decade of political and economic reforms, and growing demand for evidence-based policymaking.

Key findings

The report launch began with a welcome by Canada’s Ambassador to Myanmar, François Lafrenière. “Capacity building is key to restoring Myanmar’s research culture” he said. “Canada is committed to evidence-informed policymaking and central to this is a focus on gender equality. We believe that gender equality is one of the most powerful tools to reducing poverty and as 75% of researchers in Myanmar are women, this is not just a value statement – it is a value-for-money statement.” Ms Ngu Wah Win, Senior Policy Coordinator with CESD, dedicated the study to the founding figures of research in Myanmar.

The Report finds that, as in other developing countries, the government continues to overlook social science in the pursuit of national development objectives and specific policy goals. Although the country received a healthy injection of research funds with the new government, most of this has gone to science, technology, engineering and maths. In 2017, social sciences and humanities had a mere 0.38 percent share of total investment in research, as opposed to science, technology, engineering and mathematics with 32.8 percent, agricultural sciences with 32.6 percent, medical sciences with nearly 30 percent, and natural sciences with 4.2 percent (See Main Findings below).

International donors play a critical role in national development in the country, but this often means that too little attention is given to growing the local research system, especially in social sciences, in favour of producing consultancy-type analysis. The ‘Doing Research’ report is part of a series of ongoing initiatives that try to redress this imbalance. At the May 2020 global webinar, Dr. Zaw Oo, Executive Director of CESD said that the increased flow of funds after the country’s democratic election has led to increased interest in the research system but resulted in less local ownership over the research agenda. Reflecting on the challenges of accessing both data and permissions for the study, he spoke about the importance of informal networks in Myanmar’s research landscape and said they needed to be recognised and incorporated into frameworks for developing the broader ecosystems. “Knowing about our past helps us to understand the present”, he said.

Main findings from the Report

• Research funding for social sciences remains low on the list of government priorities.
• Research funding disbursed to higher education institutions and other public research institutions come with stringent budgetary rules, which makes it difficult to manage research projects.
• There is currently no national research policy in Myanmar.
• As ‘civil servants’, academics in public universities are often burdened with administrative duties, the supervision of students or heavy teaching loads.
• Women make up 75 per cent of researchers in Myanmar.
• There is limited collaboration or partnership among government research institutions, public higher education institutions and other relevant government departments.
• There is no formal peer review culture in Myanmar, reflecting the lack of a conversation about research quality.
• Popular opinions supersede research evidence in policy discussions.

The Report is available online with a summary in English and Burmese. The Report and global launch have helped create a 20-minute podcast by Asia Research News , another partner of the K4DM Initiative, to present a range of voices from key stakeholders to discuss Myanmar’s knowledge ecosystem today.  The Report is a stepping stone to a more vibrant debate at a time when Myanmar is embarking in a reform of the country’s entire education sector. The Levers of change identified in the report seek to expand and prioritize this debate.

Levers of change recommended by the Report

• Establish a national research body that will oversee, facilitate, coordinate, support and document research activities conducted in Myanmar, and a structure that ensures that sufficient attention is paid to social sciences as part of the national research system.
• Set up a robust and functioning research evaluation mechanism or peer review system for research in higher education institutions.
• Prioritize investment in research capacity, infrastructure and funding for higher education institutions
• Empower local researchers to provide relevant and timely technical assistance to policymakers.
• Enhance collaboration and partnership among government research institutions, public higher education institutions and other relevant government departments.
• Increase the budget for research and improve flexibility.
• Effectively coordinate international funding for research in Myanmar
• Strengthen international funding support to boost quality, ethics and equity in the research system.  

(Image courtesy of K4DM Initiative.)

Francesco Obino is Head of Programs at the Global Development Network (GDN). His main research interest is the interplay of institutional development and organisational functioning for actors that focus on producing research across the global North and the global South.

Zaw Oo is Executive Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Development (CESD), an independent think-tank dedicated to providing evidence-based policy research, results-orientated knowledge sharing, and people-centered public advocacy to support the peaceful and sustainable transformation of Myanmar.

Edgard Rodriguez is a senior program specialist who leads the International Development Research Centre – Global Affairs Canada funded Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar  (K4DM) Initiative, aiming to build the capacity of leaders to carry out research and evidence-based public policy.

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Thousands flee Myanmar for Thailand amid flare up in civil war fighting

Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa Cebrián Aranda

Patrick Fok Patrick Fok

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/thousands-flee-myanmar-for-thailand-amid-flare-up-in-civil-war-fighting

Myanmar’s civil war has taken a critical turn in recent weeks following a series of defeats for the military junta that reclaimed power in 2021. The exiled civilian government, deposed in that coup, says victory for their resistance is coming soon. But there are fears of a violent struggle as the military attempts to regain lost ground. Special correspondent Patrick Fok reports.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Myanmar's civil war has taken a critical turn in recent weeks following a series of defeats for the military junta that reclaimed power in 2021.

The exiled civilian government deposed in that coup says victory for their resistance is coming soon. But there are fears of a violent struggle as the military attempts to regain lost ground. Neighboring Thailand is nervously watching.

Thousands of people have spilled over the border in recent weeks to escape the fighting, from where special correspondent Patrick Fok reports.

Patrick Fok:

Over the last few weeks, fierce gun battles have erupted across Myanmar's Kayah State. Rebel fighters have made major advances and forced hundreds of government soldiers to surrender.

It's been an intense period for the resistance. Many of the rebels, like combat fighter Ko Thoo and his wife, who's also part of the resistance, are now recuperating in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

Ko Thoo, Combat Fighter, People’s Defense Forces (through interpreter):

I rented this place. We live here because we cannot get the front line all the time. We need to rest and take care of our health. We also need to look after family matters.

Ko Thoo comes from Magway region in Central Myanmar and ran a fitness center business before the conflict began. He joined the resistance just days after the military ousted the country's democratically elected government, led by the longtime dissident-turned-politician Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Since then, it's been racked by violence. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks around 50 wars globally, estimates more than 50,000 people, including civilians and resistance fighters, have been killed. Ko Thoo carries the memory of some of those he fought alongside on his chest.

Ko Thoo (through interpreter):

That's our battalion emblem. Comrades died. Some were arrested by military. Some are in jail.

Mae Sot has an official population of around 50,000 people. But that number has swelled as a result of the war, with some experts estimating there could be an additional 100,000 Burmese, as natives of Myanmar are known, seeking shelter here.

In recent weeks, thousands more have poured over to escape the fighting. Many come over via the border checkpoint here at Friendship Bridge, but it's hard to stop even more crossing illegally along the nearly 200-mile-long Moei River, separating Thailand and Myanmar, among them, 26-year-old Aye Aye Thin who's both very pregnant and clearly desperate.

She and her husband left their village after it was struck by government air raids.

Aye Aye Thin, Myanmar Refugee (through interpreter):

I came here with my husband. We walked across the river. The bridge was closed, and I couldn't wait for it, so we crossed illegally. The water level was high.

In Mae Sot, Aye Aye Thin relies on the help of a supporter of the Burmese resistance. But conditions are tough and she fears being arrested by Thai border authorities.

Aye Aye Thin (through interpreter):

It's difficult. I live with other people. I eat what others give us. They're not even related. I just asked for help. I met her, that person online. She accepted my request. I haven't had problems with the police so far because I don't go outside.

Thailand is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, so it doesn't distinguish asylum seekers from illegal immigrants.

It has pledged to accept up to 100,000 Myanmar refugees, but it's also arrested and pushed back many of those that have come across seeking shelter over the last few weeks. Adding to the recent influx are many young men. Earlier this year, the government in Myanmar introduced compulsory military service. It wants to bolster its ranks following recent defeats.

According to the United States Institute of Peace, the junta has lost control of around half of the roughly 5,000 military positions it holds, including outposts, bases and headquarters.

Elliott Prasse-Freeman is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and an expert in Myanmar at the National University of Singapore.

Elliott Prasse-Freeman, National University of Singapore: So this conscription law was a sort of nuclear option. It has the danger of really backfiring on them, because it forces people who don't necessarily feel like they want to take a stand on this to choose a side.

And they're certainly not most likely going to choose the side of the people who are forcibly conscripting them to fight against their friends and to fight against democracy.

Nevertheless, reports say government troops are launching a counteroffensive and are moving towards Myawaddy on the other side of the border. Traditionally, it's been a stronghold for the military, but its grip has been severely weakened following recent battles.

Billions of dollars of trade passes through Myanmar each year, making it strategically vital. There are fears of further violence now as the junta attempts to regain control.

Meanwhile, Thailand is pushing for dialogue between the junta and rebel forces. But there's little appetite for negotiation among the resistance.

Elliott Prasse-Freeman:

One of the issues is, you kind of only get one shot at a transition. You only get one shot at a credible peace. There's no way that the Burmese military can credibly commit to a peace or another democratic transition, because it's very hard to — for the resistance to take them seriously.

The exiled civilian administration known as the National Unity Government says, since forming an alliance with ethnic armed forces a year ago, the resistance has seized control of more than 60 percent of the country.

But it's come at a terrible cost for many fighters. At this makeshift rehabilitation clinic hidden on the outskirts of Mae Sot, rebel soldiers injured in the conflict are recovering.

Myo Min, who worked in marketing prior to the war, lost his leg when he stepped on the land mine in the battlefield just a few weeks ago.

Myo Min, Resistance Fighter (through interpreter):

My gun was thrown by the explosion. I saw my foot scattered, meat and bone.

Despite his condition, he says he plans to go back and fight when he's built up his strength.

Myo Min (through interpreter):

I think victory is drawing near, but we still have a long way to go. No one is helping us. We only have ourselves.

Experts say there's a lot riding on the outcome of the battle of Myawaddy. A complete takeover by the resistance could accelerate gains elsewhere.

But the military still has superior firepower and is unlikely to retreat without a fight, meaning there will likely be many more casualties on both sides.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Patrick Fok in Mae Sot, Thailand.

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As the Associate Producer for the Foreign Affairs & Defense unit, Teresa writes and produces daily segments for the millions of viewers in the U.S. and beyond who depend on PBS NewsHour for timely, relevant information on the world’s biggest issues. She’s reported on authoritarianism in Latin America, rising violence in Haiti, Egypt’s crackdown on human rights, Israel’s judicial reforms and China’s zero-covid policy, among other topics. She also contributed to the PBS NewsHour’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, which was named recipient of a duPont-Columbia Award in 2023.

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