Griffith Asia Institute Research Seminar: Developments in Myanmar (Burma)

Griffith Asia Institute Research Seminar: Developments in Myanmar (Burma)
Griffith Asia Institute Research Seminar: Developments in Myanmar (Burma)

Principal speaker

Dr Andrew Selth

Presented by: Dr Andrew Selth, Adjunct Associate Professor, Griffith Asia Institute

There is a wide consensus among experienced Myanmar-watchers that the country (formerly known as Burma) has changed more over the past five years than at any time since the abortive 1988 pro-democracy uprising. A few even take the comparison back to General Ne Win's coup in 1962, which ushered in the modern world's most durable military dictatorship. Since Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) won government in a landslide at last November's elections expectations have risen, both inside and outside Myanmar, that the pace of political, economic and social change will become even faster. A few observers have even begun speculating about the country's future role as a regional leader. Given the many complex problems it currently faces, this seems rather premature. Then again, Myanmar has always had the capacity to surprise. As Rudyard Kipling wrote in 1898, it is 'quite unlike any land you know about'. This seminar will look at the way in which Myanmar has evolved since the Ne Win era, and changed under President Thein Sein, while canvassing the many complex problems faced by Aung San Suu Kyi's new government after March.

Andrew Selth is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Griffith Asia Institute. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University, Canberra. He has been studying international security issues and Asian affairs for over 40 years, as a diplomat, strategic intelligence analyst and research scholar. He has published six books and more than 50 peer-reviewed works, most of them about Myanmar (Burma) and related subjects. Dr. Selth's latest major work is Burma, Kipling and Western Music: The Riff From Mandalay (New York: Routledge, in press).

To RSVP, please contact Christine Kowalski on (07) 3735 4705 or events-gai@griffith.edu.au by 12.00pm Monday 29 February 2016.


Event categories
RSVP

RSVP on or before Monday 29 February 2016 , by email events-gai@griffith.edu.au , or by phone x54705

Event contact details