Buddhist Nationalism Threatens Myanmar’s Democratic Transition

Posted by & filed under Religion

It’s election year in Myanmar, the big test for the country’s aspiring democratic transition. Among the spirited national debates there are four controversial pieces of legislation currently under consideration in Myanmar’s Assembly of the Union parliament (the Pyidaungsu hluttaw). These reportedly aim to protect race and religion. But in truth, the bills represent a setback for religious freedom and women’s rights and — if adopted — are likely to deepen existing religious divides, threaten the reform agenda and stir violence prior to the elections.

The controversial Buddhist nationalist monk Wirathu attends a conference about religious violence in Yangon in 2013.

A rising Buddhist nationalist movement has lobbied for the bills, in particular the ‘Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion’ (known in Myanmar under the Burmese acronym ‘Ma Ba Tha’), a group related but not identical to the infamous 969 movement. The organisation has collected more than a million signatures in support of the laws meant to protect Buddhism against a perceived threat from Islam.

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How Migration Spurs Battles over Women

Posted by & filed under Gender, Migration

Andrada Radu / Flickr

(This post was originally published on Jørgen Carling’s personal web site.)

Migration affects the lives of women in many ways. One subtle but critical mechanism lies in disputes over ‘who’ migrant women are. Migration researchers can play a role in making the battles apparent and showing how they matter.

I have collected fifteen articles that have inspired me to write this post. I’ll mention them as I write, highlighting what I think they bring to our understanding of battles over women in the context of migration. You’ll find the abstract and full reference for each article at the end of the post (or this PDF).

The battles I refer to can, for the most part be related to a simple question: Who are ‘migrant women’? Let’s leave aside the demographics and socio-economic profiles of women who migrate and focus on the idea of ‘migrant women’. A good place to start is the message that the Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) published on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2015. The Director General’s carefully worded message paints a picture that I think is typical in the field of policy and practice: migrant women are strong, yet in need of protection; they are pillars, yet vulnerable; they are leaders, yet need to be empowered.

It’s easy to point out that the IOM’s description is riddled with tensions. This is not a problem—life is full of tensions and contradictions. But it’s worth pausing to think about the attempt to fill the notion of ‘migrant women’ with meaning. Even if the description is a multi-faceted one, we are still left with a fixed category: migrant women.

‘We can learn a lot from them’ writes the IOM Director General about migrant women. I agree. In my own research, I have relied heavily upon ethnographic methods, which are essentially about learning from people who talk about their experiences. But I’ve grown increasingly sceptical of learning from people as ‘representatives’ of a particular category.Read More

Free Rein of Special Services makes Russia Ungovernable

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

Chechen para-military forces swear loyalty to Ramzan Kadyrov.

It took a week for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to produce a pair of plausible suspects in the shocking murder of Boris Nemtsov on February 28. Last Saturday (March 7), FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov reported to President Vladimir Putin that two men implicated in the crime were under arrest; and on Sunday, another man killed himself with a hand grenade in Grozny… Too many loose ends in this crime persist, however, for one to have any confidence in the official version.

Putin is no more able to assert effective control over rogue elements within the special services than his subordinates are able to turn Rosneft or Russian Railways into modern, efficiently managed corporations. The best he can hope for is to keep up the appearance of firm leadership: and pinning the blame for the elimination of a brave dissident on Western-sponsored Chechen rebels is a convenient means toward this end. Such a policy, however, cannot alter the reality of the ungovernability of the siloviki-dominated Russian state, which oversees a degenerating crony capitalist economy.

The rest of the article is in Eurasia Daily Monitor, March 9.

Reflections on Climate-Conflict Research: More Confusion than Knowledge

Posted by & filed under Environment, Urbanization and Environment

Does climate change constitute a threat to peace and security? Many agree that it does. The US administration’s new National Security Strategy, launched last month, portrays climate change as ‘an urgent and growing threat.’

“Drought” by Tomas Castelazo – Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

And this week, a new study appears to add scientific credibility to this concern, suggesting human-caused climate change contributed to the drought that preceded the Syrian civil war.

So does the Syrian case represent a general pattern, where climate changes and extremes are systematically increasing conflict risk? The short answer is no. But if scientists want to explore these links more closely, there are a few steps they need to take.

Read more at the Carbon Brief, where the full text was published 6 March 2015.

This Week in South Sudan – Week 10

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Wednesday 4 March The South Sudanese government condemned the attack on Marialachak village in Abyei, where some 100 armed Misseriya killed 4 civilians, wounded 3 others and prompted some 4000 residents to flee the village. The SPLA has attempted to contain a violent police strike over unpaid salaries in Wau, capital of Western Bahr el… Read more »

Fifty Years Since the Selma March

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Yesterday, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, President Obama and over 100 members of the US Congress celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights march in Selma, a turning-point in the non-violent civil rights movement. President Obama was introduced by John Lewis, who with Hosea Williams and others led the march fifty years ago and was severely beaten by the Alabama police.

Celebration at the Edmund Pettus bridge, Selma, 7 March 2015. John Lewis between Michelle and Barack Obama. Photo: The Kansas City Star

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Discussing the Arctic matters in Ottawa

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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu provided a useful point of departure for my presentation and discussions in Ottawa on current Arctic matters, asserting that Russia is facing “a wide range of potential security challenges and threats” in the Arctic and is ready to use military means for countering those. It is certainly not the first… Read more »

Murder that Revealed Truth

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

He had no fear and was hard to miss in any crowd.

As days go by, the pain and shock from the news about Boris Nemtsov murder are turning into sad reflections on Russia’s predicament, and my bottom line goes as following:

Nemtsov was a voice in the wilderness of Russian propaganda and self-deception. And his murder has cut away multiple layers of lies in Putin’s “war is peace” story. Tens of thousands of people who marched last Sunday across the bridge, which the man who refused to live a lie had walked to meet four bullets, may never learn the truth about the hand that pulled the trigger. They know, however, where the responsibility rests for whipping up the hatred currently devastating eastern Ukraine and for turning murder into a “natural” continuation of the condemnation of Russia’s “traitors.” Putin’s regime has mutated into a war clique that cannot find any other foundation besides this irrational and self-destructive hatred; and it cannot stop with a “victory” in Debaltseve or with the murder of one individual who stood tall against their war. Yet, Russia is not inherently a country that hates, and there is hope that Friday night was the darkest hour before the dawn of consciousness.

For the beginning of the article, go to Eurasia Daily Monitor, March 2.

Oil and Military Intervention: Are the Conspiracy Theorists Right?

Posted by & filed under Conflict Patterns

Since wars in oil-producing countries may affect the price of, and access to, oil, the so-called conspiracy theorists may be correct that the presence of oil may be a weighty factor in favour of intervention.

French troops in Bamako, Mali (2012). Photo: Idrissa Fall. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

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