Burma Redux
Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar
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- 34,99 €
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- 34,99 €
Publisher Description
Contemporary Myanmar faces a number of political challenges, and it is unclear how other nations should act in relation to the country. Prioritizing the opinions of local citizens and reading them against the latest scholarship on this issue, Ian Holliday affirms the importance of foreign interests in Myanmar's democratic awakening, yet only through committed, grassroots strategies of engagement encompassing foreign states, international aid agencies, and global corporations.
Holliday supports his argument by using multiple sources and theories, particularly ones that take historical events, contemporary political and social investigations, and global justice literature into account, as well as studies that focus on the effects of democratic transition, the aid industry, and socially responsible corporate investing and sanctions. One of the only volumes to apply broad-ranging global justice theories to a real-world nation in flux, Burma Redux will appeal to professionals researching Burma/Myanmar; political advisers and advocacy groups; nonspecialists interested in Southeast Asian politics and society and the local and international problems posed by pariah states; general readers who seek a richer understanding of the country beyond journalistic accounts; and the Burmese people themselves—both within the country and in diaspora. Burma Redux is also the first book-length study on the nation to be completed after the contentious general elections of 2010.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On the world stage Myanmar is generally treated as a pariah, Western nations and corporations having washed their hands of its brutal authoritarian regime. In this considered and up-to-the-minute analysis, rooted in a firm foundation of political theory, Holliday, a political science professor at The University of Hong Kong, examines the current state of the country once known as Burma. The book traces Myanmar's history from British colonial rule to the decade or so of relative progress that followed independence, through the coups of 1962 and 1988 that established and reaffirmed military rule, which was marked by kleptocracy, repression, human rights abuses, and ethnic conflict. Although the 2010 election promised a new era of what leaders call "discipline-flourishing democracy," Holliday sees the new government as a "sham democracy" that has done little to lessen military power or truly respect the people's voice. Exploring the options for intervention, he questions the extent of global responsibility for change, and the effectiveness of current strategies like sanctions and boycotts. Arguing that engagement more than isolation will help Myanmar reform and rejoin the global community, Holliday advocates for grassroots tactics to promote democratic values by building a vibrant civil culture from the ground up. This astute book, best suited for political analysts or researchers, extends the hope that Myanmar might return to its once promising state.
