Federal Design in Myanmar:
A Pathway for Unity, Stability and Inclusivity
This seminar is an online event via Zoom
Date: July 27, 2026 (Monday)
Time: 06:00 – 07:00 PM (Melbourne Time)
02:30-03:30 PM (Myanmar/Yangon Time)
Join Zoom Meeting: please click here
Meeting ID: 896 6683 9791
Passcode: 522994
Presenter: Michael Breen and Soe Htet
Description: This talk introduces and overviews a recently published edited book focused on federal design in Myanmar, Federal Design in Myanmar: A Pathway for Unity, Stability and Inclusivity, edited by Michael Breen and Soe Htet. The book brings together leading scholars, practitioners, and civil society actors, offers practical contributions to Myanmar’s evolving federal constitutional design and draws lessons applicable to other conflict-affected and divided societies. Through comparative analysis and ground case studies, the book explores competing visions of federalism, emerging bottom-up governance models, and the political contestations shaping Myanmar’s future. It provides fresh insights into legitimacy, representation, institutional design, ethnic autonomy, and the prospects for sustainable peace in a fractured state. The talk will overview the chapters and their recommendations and suggestions. Chapter authors will also be invited to attend and may be available to contribute to discussions on their chapters.
Michael Breen is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and then was a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Michael has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict, Queens University of Belfast and Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Comparative Federalism, Eurac, Italy. Michael’s research focuses on federalism, political parties and electoral systems in Asia, ethnic conflict, and deliberative democracy. Before academia, Michael was a policy maker, negotiator and project manager in government departments in Australia and international organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme. He has advised on federal constitution-making in Nepal, Myanmar and the Philippines and authored major policy and legislative reforms in Australia.
Soe Htet is a PhD candidate in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne and a Steering Committee member of the Myanmar Research Network. His research focuses on nation-building, federalism and the political history of Myanmar. He has taught in the online Social Research Skills Program offered by the University of Melbourne and the Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) at Chiang Mai University. His recent work on the genealogy of federal discourses in Myanmar was published in the edited volume Federal Design in Myanmar: A Pathway for Unity, Stability, and Inclusivity (2026).
Questions and Answers will follow the presentations.
For more information about AMI, please visit aummi.edu.au/.