Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
It took the Association of Southeast Asian Nations nearly three months to convene a special meeting to discuss Myanmar’s February 1 coup. Then, a further three months elapsed before the bloc agreed on appointing Brunei’s senior diplomat Erywan Yusof as the special envoy to the violence-wracked nation. Now, some three weeks...
Cambodia will hold ASEAN’s rotating chair next year and its diplomatic leadership will be tested by the region’s difficult challenges, while Cambodia will be also be scrutinized for signs that its chairmanship is influenced by its close relationship with...
At a hotel in Wa State, near the Myanmar-China border, Chinese national Li Jiajie is growing increasingly desperate by the day. The 24-year-old has been surviving on his savings since last month when he quit his job as an assistant chef after...
Almost as soon as the tanks rolled into Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, in February, rumours began circulating on social media about how China would respond. It is a sign of its influence: China is probably the only country that could coax Myanmar’s generals to...
In May, Myanmar media reported that the ruling junta had reorganised committees that work on the country’s joint projects with China, ousting all civilian leaders and replacing them with its own appointees. The personnel changes were made to...
"China's response to the Myanmar coup reveals how far ASEAN's preeminent regional role has been eroded," writes Jason Tower, Myanmar country director for the United States Institute of Peace, in commentary for Nikkei Asia. "This leaves ASEAN effectively right where...
Almost as if coordinated, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations took major steps toward recognizing Myanmar's newly minted military dictatorship within a day of each other in early June. In Yangon, the Chinese embassy issued a statement after...
From small villages to city offices, an open rebellion is steadily spreading in Burma, drawing together citizens outraged by the Feb. 1 coup that overturned a national election and crushed a popular democracy. Pro-democracy advocates inside Burma and abroad describe how defectors from the disgraced army — the hated Tatmadaw — as well as...
Recent formal interactions between Myanmar’s junta and officials from China have raised questions about whether the generals who staged February’s coup are garnering international recognition as the Southeast Asian nation’s legitimate executive authority. More than 420 civil society organisations...
Protesters returned to the streets of Mandalay last Saturday, stamped on the flag of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and then burned it. A student leader in Myanmar's second-largest city said opponents of the junta, the State Administration Council, will...