AMI Monthly Seminar_February Hybrid Meeting  


Myanmar’s Digital Coup – How the World Responded

Book Launch

Nicholas Coppel CSI, Lennon Y.C. Chang, Prof. Nicholas Farrelly

Tuesday 18 February 2025: 5:30pm for 6 7pm AEDT at Level 13, 356 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

February marks four years since Myanmar’s junta seized power in a violent and deadly coup.

Four years on, the military’s firm grip on Myanmar’s telecommunications infrastructure empowers them to weaponise internet shutdowns in regions where anti-coup resistance is strong and, operating under the guise of e- government projects, the regime raises funds and collects resources to strengthen its extensive surveillance infrastructure.

In a new book Myanmar’s Digital Coup – How the World Responded (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), former Australian Ambassador to Myanmar Nicholas Coppel and cyber expert Lennon Chang explore the nature, scope, merits and limits of international responses to Myanmar’s February 2021 coup, and analyse how technologies in the digital age have been used by both the military junta and the resistance movement to control information, the transfer of funds and to pursue accountability.

How does ASEAN see its role, how does the National Unity Government regard ASEAN endeavours, and how does the rest of the world view ASEAN’s capacity to address Myanmar’s problems? Should the United Nations play a larger role?

AIIA Victoria, co-hosting with the Australian Myanmar Institute invites you to join Nicholas Coppel and Lennon Chang with Professor Nicholas Farrelly to discuss how foreign governments, businesses or organisations have responded to the coup.

BOOK ONLINE HERE

AIIA Victoria gratefully acknowledges the Walter Mangold Trust Fund for its ongoing support of our young members .

In-person: Free face-to-face seats are limited (first come, first served). Free limited seats register here
(How to register: click the link, register and scroll down until you see “In person: AMI Member” then register).

Webinar: click here for the free webinar
(How to register: click the link, register and scroll down until you see “Webinar: AMI Member Online” then register).

Nicholas Coppel CSI is President of the Australia Myanmar Institute and a former senior career diplomat. He was Australia’s Ambassador to Myanmar from 2015 to 2018. Between 2011 and 2013, he headed the 500+ person Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) in restoring law and order and governance in Solomon Islands after a period of ethnic tensions. He was awarded the Cross of Solomon Islands in 2017.
Lennon Y.C. Chang is Associate Professor, Cyber Risk and Policy, in the Centre for Cyber Resilience and Trust and the School of Information Technology, at Deakin University. His research focuses on the intersection of law and technology, cybercrime and cyber security, disinformation campaigns and foreign interference. He co-founded Cyber Baykin: Myanmar Cyber Security Awareness Campaign.

 

 

Professor Nicholas Farrelly is a Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Tasmania, where he was previously Head of Social Sciences. Earlier in his career he held academic positions at the Australian National University, including as Associate Dean in the College of Asia and the Pacific. A graduate of the ANU and the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, Nicholas is on the board of the Australia-ASEAN Council and is also a Director of Australia’s National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters. He is a co-author of “Comprehensive Strategic Partners: ASEAN and Australia after the first 50 years” published in 2024.