After the Coup: Myanmar’s Political and Humanitarian Crises
With an update on the Rakhine, Rohingya and the Arakan Army
This seminar will be a virtual event, online via Zoom.
This seminar highlights the recent release of the book After the Coup: Myanmar’s Political & Humanitarian Crises (2023), edited by Anthony Ware and Monique Skidmore – which is freely downloadable from ANU Press (https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/after-coup). Chapters analyse topics including coercive statecraft, international justice, Rakhine State (Rohingya) dynamics, pandemic weaponisation, higher education, non-state welfare and aid delivery, activism from exile, self-determination and power sharing in the National Unity Government’s alternative constitution, and the roles of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. After introducing the book as a whole, this seminar will introduce three chapter authors to provide an update on the Rohingya conflict and dynamics in Rakhine State with the growing power of the Arakan Army, including battlefield advances, the growth of the civil administration of the Arakan Army, and the impact and implications for the Rohingya. This Rakhine-Rohingya-Arakan Army update will elaborate on insights in the book, brought right up to date by recent interview, survey, focus group and social media analysis research.
Date: February 26th, 2024 (Monday)
Duration: 1 hour
Time: 06:00 – 07:00 PM AEST Time (13:30-14:30 Myanmar/Yangon Time)
Join Zoom Meeting: please click here
Meeting ID: 836 7649 6162
Passcode: 235119
Monique Skidmore is an honorary professor at Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute. She is an award- and grant-winning Burmese political and medical anthropologist and an expert media commentator. She has published seven books on Myanmar, including Karaoke Fascism: Burma and the Politics of Fear (2004). She convened the Myanmar/Burma Update conference at The Australian National University for eight years, and is co-editor of After the Coup: Myanmar’s Political & Humanitarian Crises (ANU Press, 2023).
Anthony Ware is an associate professor of humanitarianism and development at Deakin University and a former director of the Australia Myanmar Institute (2013-2017). His research, primarily in Myanmar, focuses on humanitarian and development approaches in conflict-affected situations. He has a particular interest in conflict sensitivity, ‘do no harm’, everyday peace, peacebuilding, and countering violent and hateful extremism. He has published five books, three of which are on Myanmar, including lead author of Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ Conflict (2018) and is co-editor of After the Coup: Myanmar’s Political & Humanitarian Crises (ANU Press, 2023)
Costas Laoutides is an associate professor of international relations at Deakin University, Australia. His area of expertise is ethno-political and separatist conflict, and its resolution. He is lead research on a project 2019-23 entitled Enhancing the work of local peace entrepreneurs after ethnic cleansing, which explores the work of actors strengthening peace formation between Rohingya and Rakhine inside Myanmar. He is the co‑author of Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ Conflict (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2018, with Anthony Ware) and the sole author of Self-Determination and Collective Responsibility in Secessionist Struggle (Routledge).
Tay Zar Myo Win is a PhD candidate at Deakin University, and former lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science, Ubon Ratchathani University. His current and recent research projects explore the conflict in Rakhine State, rights of the Rohingya people, the Civil Disobedience Movement, and the process of radicalisation to extremist Buddhist nationalism. Prior to academia, Tay Zar has worked in development practice, on civic education, democracy and electoral support, and worked closely with the Union Election Commission in Myanmar as a member of a technical support team to assist national and local elections in Myanmar
Questions and Answers will follow the presentations.
***NOTE: Zoom can work very well, but it poses difficulties for people with a poor internet connection. So, people from Myanmar (or elsewhere) who might have a poor internet connection or low bandwidth should turn off the video mode and listen to the seminar. You may be able to switch on the video from time to time just to see who is speaking, but definitely don’t use the video mode if you wish to speak yourself. You can also pose questions using the chat function. The whole seminar will be uploaded later on the AMI website and Facebook page.