Myanmar is a nation in turmoil. Still recovering from over six decades of authoritarian rule following independence from British colonialism in 1949, civil war continues to wreak havoc on the country’s ethnic areas. Despite high hopes for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), human rights issues have remained woefully de-prioritized under the new democratically-elected government. Following the signing of a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) by Government of Myanmar and eight Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) in 2015, a [...]

Erin's new book, "Rewriting the Victim: Dramatization as Research in Thailand's Anti-Trafficking Movement" is now available from Oxford University Press' series on Gender and International Relations. About the book: The international movement against the trafficking of women, which has gained momentum over the past two decades, is driven largely by the United States, in tandem with state governments and NGO workers. Feminist organizations have played a key role in carrying out anti-trafficking policies, but are increasingly divided over what [...]

Women living in Myanmar’s conflict areas face enormous pressure from ethnic autonomous organizations to support a war effort that does not necessarily serve their interests. These pressures are subtle, and often invisible to development actors who focus on tackling intersections of gender and conflict that are more overt. As a result, advocacy efforts do not always reach women who need them most at the ground level. Building on my previous discussions of the need to see beyond the visible, and [...]

Development practitioners in Myanmar should view the phenomenon of “peacebuilding” as two separate, but intersecting projects—one driven by Myanmar nationals, and the other driven by international actors. The “peace process” is a closed system invested in the balance of power between ethnic communities and the Myanmar government, while another project—what I call the “peacebuilding project” represents, among other things, an international contest for geopolitical control in Mainland Southeast Asia. In this piece, I will discuss the nuances of these two [...]

Peacebuilding practitioners in Myanmar should re-orient the way we look at peace and conflict processes, by viewing them through the experiences of women. Applying a gender lens to Myanmar’s peace process—which is largely dominated by male elites and leaves out the voices of ethnic communities, will reveal a more complete picture of the strategies being enacted by civil society actors to mitigate the effects of armed conflict. This, in turn, could inform policies that are more likely to generate productive [...]