The special issue of the European Journal of East Asian Studies entirely devoted to Myanmar’s transitions and co-edited by Giuseppe Gabusi and Nicholas Farrelly, respectively Head of Program and Research Fellow at T.wai, has just been released. The issue includes also papers by Stefano Ruzza (Head of Program at T.wai), Simone Dossi and Fabio Armao (T.wai’s Research Fellows).
The team of political scientists has been working on Myanmar under a joint project between the Australian National University (ANU) and T.wai, a think-tank based in a city whose current mayor, Mr Piero Fassino, was previously the European Union Special Envoy in Burma/Myanmar. From domestic political culture to political economy challenges, from the role of the state in democratic transitions to the commitment to peace by the army and armed movements, and from the controversial relationship with China to the ambiguous dynamics of its interaction with India, the articles shed light on the state of the country, while assessing both the outcome of the reform processes and the dangers lying ahead for its long-term stability and the prosperity of the country. As a result of fruitful cooperation between a European research institution and a university based in the Asia-Pacific, this special issue is a valuable contribution to the understandings of contemporary Myanmar, and it is testimony to a research agenda that will hopefully bring further findings in the years to come.
