Myanmar’s Contested Borderlands: Centre-Periphery Power Relations and Fragmented Sovereignty

Attempts to assert control over the country’s borderlands have been a central dynamic of the state building of successive governments in Myanmar, albeit a deeply conflictual one considering that the state’s power has been historically weak and contested throughout much of the country. This chapter analyses the unresolved issues surrounding the distribution of power between the centre and borderlands since Myanmar’s independence, which has intensified since the February 2021 military coup. It explores the systems of fragmented sovereignty that shape Myanmar’s borderlands, as well as the political, economic and strategic interactions that connect these borderlands to the wider region.