The "New City" of Shwe Kokko on the Myanmar-Thailand border has raised eyebrows as a hub for onli... more The "New City" of Shwe Kokko on the Myanmar-Thailand border has raised eyebrows as a hub for online gambling, despite being touted as a central part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Southeast Asia.
Shwe Kokko’s rapid rise is less about Chinese BRI expansionism fuelling conflict and destabilising a fledgling democracy, and more about rapacious capitalism seeking new spaces to expand into and exploit. Disaggregated sovereignty is endemic to the borderlands, making it extremely appealing to shadow capital.
CSIS Indonesia -- Seeking Strategic Options for Myanmar, 2022
- ASEAN countries, while diversifying their efforts in a coordinated manner with a long-term view... more - ASEAN countries, while diversifying their efforts in a coordinated manner with a long-term view, can seek to understand the EAOs as key stakeholders in the country, in the spirit of the Five-Point Consensus (FPC). - Engaging with the EAOs may allow ASEAN to build channels of communication, deliver humanitarian assistance, build EAO capacity, and explore areas of common interest that inform a future dialogue. - The autonomy and aspirations of EAOs may well become models for the rebuilding of Myanmar’s political institutions, economy, and social fabric, with EAOs forming a centre bloc that can influence opposing sides in the conflict.
- The increasingly widespread attacks on Tatmadaw troops by resistance forces across Myanmar have... more - The increasingly widespread attacks on Tatmadaw troops by resistance forces across Myanmar have given rise to suggestions of a descent into civil war, with Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) touted as a “wild card” that might decide the country’s fate. However, talk of a Federal Army and comparisons to the Syrian civil war are premature and create a false impression of unity in intent.
- Broadly, EAOs are either fighting to regain lost territory, adopting a wait-and-see approach, protecting their ethnic kin from Tatmadaw attacks, or seeking opportunistic business deals in the peripheries. They have vastly different worldviews, military capabilities, and working languages, some leaning politically towards China and others towards Western countries.
- Recognising the EAOs for what they are—armed groups controlling territoryrather than looking to them for military solutions or political leadership, calls for more deliberate building of pan-ethnic solidarity at all levels and for the inclusion of diverse actors in new conversations about a federal union.
- The presence of the EAOs as a fighting force or potential “wild card” must not lead to wishful thinking or become a reason to absolve China, Japan, ASEAN and the West of the responsibility to search for solutions to protect people across Myanmar.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), an insurgent polity in the highlands of the Myanmar-China border, has kept the Myanmar state at bay for 30 years. It runs its own administration and controls its territorial boundaries, but disavows secession and independence. It parades its army and walks out of national peace talks, but pledges to defend Myanmar’s sovereignty and flies the Myanmar flag. This tactical dissonance consists of oscillating political relations, in which the UWSA intermittently makes and breaks ties with the outside. It is an incongruity both mimicking and disavowing various state effects in an improvisational attempt to adopt political registers and logics that allow it to avoid state domination and express the autonomy it seeks. This relational autonomy paradoxically fosters accommodation and stability, calling into question our assumptions about rebellion, disorder, and peace amid insurgency.
If there are any charitable, philanthropic, or welfare-state activities in the de facto states of... more If there are any charitable, philanthropic, or welfare-state activities in the de facto states of insurgent armies, they are generally interpreted in terms of utilitarian motives and the self-legitimation of military elites and their business associates. However, development and philanthropy in the Wa State of Myanmar have more extensive purposes. We argue that a framing of care rather than of governance allows for ethnographic attention to emerging social relations and subject positions-'our people', 'the vulnerable', and 'the poor'. In this article we describe 'communities of care' by analysing public donations, development assistance and independent philanthropy in the Wa State as categories of care that each follow a different moral logic, respond to different needs, and connect different actors and recipients. Zooming in on the ways in which communities of care reproduce moral subjectivities and political authority allows a re-imagining of everyday politics in the de facto states of armed groups, no longer wedded to notions of control, legitimacy, and 'rebel governance'.
This article examines the casting of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) as an intransigent and dange... more This article examines the casting of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) as an intransigent and dangerous actor in the Myanmar peace process. It analyses how media narratives express two simultaneous yet contrastive qualities of the Wa Region and the UWSA: rigidity and fluidity. Engaging the UWSA requires an understanding of the organization’s political culture, especially its self-image of autonomy and self-reliance. A careful contextualization of its actions suggests that seeking ways to integrate it into the Union of Myanmar should be a central form of engagement, in which the international community should play a more significant role.
The "New City" of Shwe Kokko on the Myanmar-Thailand border has raised eyebrows as a hub for onli... more The "New City" of Shwe Kokko on the Myanmar-Thailand border has raised eyebrows as a hub for online gambling, despite being touted as a central part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Southeast Asia.
Shwe Kokko’s rapid rise is less about Chinese BRI expansionism fuelling conflict and destabilising a fledgling democracy, and more about rapacious capitalism seeking new spaces to expand into and exploit. Disaggregated sovereignty is endemic to the borderlands, making it extremely appealing to shadow capital.
CSIS Indonesia -- Seeking Strategic Options for Myanmar, 2022
- ASEAN countries, while diversifying their efforts in a coordinated manner with a long-term view... more - ASEAN countries, while diversifying their efforts in a coordinated manner with a long-term view, can seek to understand the EAOs as key stakeholders in the country, in the spirit of the Five-Point Consensus (FPC). - Engaging with the EAOs may allow ASEAN to build channels of communication, deliver humanitarian assistance, build EAO capacity, and explore areas of common interest that inform a future dialogue. - The autonomy and aspirations of EAOs may well become models for the rebuilding of Myanmar’s political institutions, economy, and social fabric, with EAOs forming a centre bloc that can influence opposing sides in the conflict.
- The increasingly widespread attacks on Tatmadaw troops by resistance forces across Myanmar have... more - The increasingly widespread attacks on Tatmadaw troops by resistance forces across Myanmar have given rise to suggestions of a descent into civil war, with Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) touted as a “wild card” that might decide the country’s fate. However, talk of a Federal Army and comparisons to the Syrian civil war are premature and create a false impression of unity in intent.
- Broadly, EAOs are either fighting to regain lost territory, adopting a wait-and-see approach, protecting their ethnic kin from Tatmadaw attacks, or seeking opportunistic business deals in the peripheries. They have vastly different worldviews, military capabilities, and working languages, some leaning politically towards China and others towards Western countries.
- Recognising the EAOs for what they are—armed groups controlling territoryrather than looking to them for military solutions or political leadership, calls for more deliberate building of pan-ethnic solidarity at all levels and for the inclusion of diverse actors in new conversations about a federal union.
- The presence of the EAOs as a fighting force or potential “wild card” must not lead to wishful thinking or become a reason to absolve China, Japan, ASEAN and the West of the responsibility to search for solutions to protect people across Myanmar.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), an insurgent polity in the highlands of the Myanmar-China border, has kept the Myanmar state at bay for 30 years. It runs its own administration and controls its territorial boundaries, but disavows secession and independence. It parades its army and walks out of national peace talks, but pledges to defend Myanmar’s sovereignty and flies the Myanmar flag. This tactical dissonance consists of oscillating political relations, in which the UWSA intermittently makes and breaks ties with the outside. It is an incongruity both mimicking and disavowing various state effects in an improvisational attempt to adopt political registers and logics that allow it to avoid state domination and express the autonomy it seeks. This relational autonomy paradoxically fosters accommodation and stability, calling into question our assumptions about rebellion, disorder, and peace amid insurgency.
If there are any charitable, philanthropic, or welfare-state activities in the de facto states of... more If there are any charitable, philanthropic, or welfare-state activities in the de facto states of insurgent armies, they are generally interpreted in terms of utilitarian motives and the self-legitimation of military elites and their business associates. However, development and philanthropy in the Wa State of Myanmar have more extensive purposes. We argue that a framing of care rather than of governance allows for ethnographic attention to emerging social relations and subject positions-'our people', 'the vulnerable', and 'the poor'. In this article we describe 'communities of care' by analysing public donations, development assistance and independent philanthropy in the Wa State as categories of care that each follow a different moral logic, respond to different needs, and connect different actors and recipients. Zooming in on the ways in which communities of care reproduce moral subjectivities and political authority allows a re-imagining of everyday politics in the de facto states of armed groups, no longer wedded to notions of control, legitimacy, and 'rebel governance'.
This article examines the casting of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) as an intransigent and dange... more This article examines the casting of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) as an intransigent and dangerous actor in the Myanmar peace process. It analyses how media narratives express two simultaneous yet contrastive qualities of the Wa Region and the UWSA: rigidity and fluidity. Engaging the UWSA requires an understanding of the organization’s political culture, especially its self-image of autonomy and self-reliance. A careful contextualization of its actions suggests that seeking ways to integrate it into the Union of Myanmar should be a central form of engagement, in which the international community should play a more significant role.
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Papers by Andrew Ong
Shwe Kokko’s rapid rise is less about Chinese BRI expansionism fuelling conflict and destabilising a fledgling democracy, and more about rapacious capitalism seeking new spaces to expand into and exploit. Disaggregated sovereignty is endemic to the borderlands, making it extremely appealing to shadow capital.
- Engaging with the EAOs may allow ASEAN to build channels of communication, deliver humanitarian assistance, build EAO capacity, and explore areas of common interest that inform a future dialogue.
- The autonomy and aspirations of EAOs may well become models for the rebuilding of Myanmar’s political institutions, economy, and social fabric, with EAOs forming a centre bloc that can influence opposing sides in the conflict.
- Broadly, EAOs are either fighting to regain lost territory, adopting a wait-and-see approach, protecting their ethnic kin from Tatmadaw attacks, or seeking opportunistic business deals in the peripheries. They have vastly different worldviews, military capabilities, and working languages, some leaning politically towards China and others towards Western countries.
- Recognising the EAOs for what they are—armed groups controlling territoryrather than looking to them for military solutions or political leadership, calls for more deliberate building of pan-ethnic solidarity at all levels and for the inclusion of diverse actors in new conversations about a federal union.
- The presence of the EAOs as a fighting force or potential “wild card” must not lead to wishful thinking or become a reason to absolve China, Japan, ASEAN and the West of the responsibility to search for solutions to protect people across Myanmar.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), an insurgent polity in the highlands of the Myanmar-China border, has kept the Myanmar state at bay for 30 years. It runs its own administration and controls its territorial boundaries, but disavows secession and independence. It parades its army and walks out of national peace talks, but pledges to defend Myanmar’s sovereignty and flies the Myanmar flag. This tactical dissonance consists of oscillating political relations, in which the UWSA intermittently makes and breaks ties with the outside. It is an incongruity both mimicking and disavowing various state effects in an improvisational attempt to adopt political registers and logics that allow it to avoid state domination and express the autonomy it seeks. This relational autonomy paradoxically fosters accommodation and stability, calling into question our assumptions about rebellion, disorder, and peace amid insurgency.
Shwe Kokko’s rapid rise is less about Chinese BRI expansionism fuelling conflict and destabilising a fledgling democracy, and more about rapacious capitalism seeking new spaces to expand into and exploit. Disaggregated sovereignty is endemic to the borderlands, making it extremely appealing to shadow capital.
- Engaging with the EAOs may allow ASEAN to build channels of communication, deliver humanitarian assistance, build EAO capacity, and explore areas of common interest that inform a future dialogue.
- The autonomy and aspirations of EAOs may well become models for the rebuilding of Myanmar’s political institutions, economy, and social fabric, with EAOs forming a centre bloc that can influence opposing sides in the conflict.
- Broadly, EAOs are either fighting to regain lost territory, adopting a wait-and-see approach, protecting their ethnic kin from Tatmadaw attacks, or seeking opportunistic business deals in the peripheries. They have vastly different worldviews, military capabilities, and working languages, some leaning politically towards China and others towards Western countries.
- Recognising the EAOs for what they are—armed groups controlling territoryrather than looking to them for military solutions or political leadership, calls for more deliberate building of pan-ethnic solidarity at all levels and for the inclusion of diverse actors in new conversations about a federal union.
- The presence of the EAOs as a fighting force or potential “wild card” must not lead to wishful thinking or become a reason to absolve China, Japan, ASEAN and the West of the responsibility to search for solutions to protect people across Myanmar.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), an insurgent polity in the highlands of the Myanmar-China border, has kept the Myanmar state at bay for 30 years. It runs its own administration and controls its territorial boundaries, but disavows secession and independence. It parades its army and walks out of national peace talks, but pledges to defend Myanmar’s sovereignty and flies the Myanmar flag. This tactical dissonance consists of oscillating political relations, in which the UWSA intermittently makes and breaks ties with the outside. It is an incongruity both mimicking and disavowing various state effects in an improvisational attempt to adopt political registers and logics that allow it to avoid state domination and express the autonomy it seeks. This relational autonomy paradoxically fosters accommodation and stability, calling into question our assumptions about rebellion, disorder, and peace amid insurgency.