Peri-conflict peace: brokerage, development and illiberal ceasefires in Myanmar's borderlands
Date
2020
Authors
McCarthy, Gerard
Farrelly, Nicholas
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Abstract
Successive Myanmar governments have enlisted illiberal means in
attempts to end the world’s oldest civil wars. Since the 1990s, stateled attempts at peace-building have offered ethnic armed groups
limited political autonomy or institutional recognition. Many of the
1990s ceasefire agreements, and the new wave agreed since the
transition to partial civilian rule in 2011, have instead sought to
erode insurgent legitimacy and control over local populations
through encroachment of state-led development initiatives and
elite resource extraction rackets into restive regions. Drawing on
qualitative fieldwork conducted during periods of ceasefire in
Kachin (1994–2011) and Karen States (2012–2019), this article
explores how illiberal peace-building has inflamed tensions
between ‘insurgent social order’ and the central state over who
and how development is brokered and delivered. While illiberal
peace sustains economic and political activity, attempts by the
central state to cut insurgent social order out from the mediation
and regulation of public goods can provoke intense grassroots
conflict within insurgent groups and with the state. Violence
looms as a proximate possibility in these contexts despite elite
ceasefire, creating what we term ‘peri-conflict’ peace.
Description
Keywords
Brokers, development, hybrid political orders, illiberal peace-building, Myanmar
Citation
Collections
Source
Conflict, Security and Development
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
2099-12-31
Downloads
File
Description