Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
This chapter provides a summary of the findings and overall conclusions presented in the preceding chapters, bringing together the most important ideas from the book. Based on the findings, this chapter makes some recommendations for how the world should deal with the Rohingyas upon their return and resettlement. The chapter emphasizes the importance of the media in such situations. The chapter also compiles a few major recommendations and evaluates the Myanmar government’s narratives in relation to those of regional and international credible media outlets to determine their veracity. In this final chapter, the contribution to the scholarship is precisely highlighted.
The Introduction sets out the foundations of the Japanese government’s engagement with Myanmar’s democratization process from the passage of Myanmar’s constitution in May 2008 to the 1 February 2021 coup d’état that brought an end to Myanmar’s democratic transition. It places the Japan–Myanmar relationship in historical context to understand how this relationship evolved and what Japan’s contemporary commitments to and ambitions in Myanmar are. In particular, Japan’s support for Myanmar’s transition to a ‘disciplined democracy’ is based not only on its economic objectives and efforts to counter China’s influence in the country, but also an aspiration to be accepted as ‘Asia’s liberal leader’. The Introduction reviews the extant literature on Japan–Myanmar relations to situate the book’s contribution to the literature, before detailing the structure of the book.
The human cost of economic development is the subject of Chapter 4. The primary incentive of both the Japanese government and businesses in encouraging Myanmar’s democratization process was to exploit the human and natural resources of the country and construct economic corridors across the Mekong region to facilitate trade. The Japanese government’s support for Japanese business ventures in Myanmar was encapsulated in its sponsoring, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Though the Thilawa SEZ should have been developed in accordance with JICA’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) guidelines, the land of the Thilawa residents was coercively appropriated, the residents were inadequately compensated and moved to an inappropriate relocation site where the quality of housing was poor and the conditions for life were unsanitary. Japan’s support for the construction of the Dawei SEZ witnessed similar land grabs at the expense of the local population. The Thilawa and Dawei cases highlight a major discrepancy between Japanese policy makers’ rhetorical commitment to human security and the reality of neoliberal imperatives in Myanmar.
Chapter 3 explores the construction of Japanese foreign policy narratives concerning the evolving democratization process in Myanmar. The chapter argues that Japanese policy makers have consistently sought to distinguish their relations with Myanmar from other states in the international community by depicting Japan’s relationship with Myanmar in terms of bridging (kakehashi). The notion of Japan acting in this kakehashi role can be observed in the statements of various policy makers who imagine the Japanese state as a go-between the international community and Myanmar, seeking to entice Myanmar into the liberal international order through ‘positive linkage’, namely Japan’s offer of Official Development Assistance to the Myanmar government in return for steps towards democratization, such as the freeing of political prisoners. By democratizing, these Japanese policy makers argued, Myanmar could shed its ‘pariah’ status, enabling the West to lower economic sanctions and recognize it as a legitimate member of the international community. This chapter traces Japan’s responses to the evolution of Myanmar’s democracy in the post-Cold War period with a particular emphasis on events after the Saffron Revolution and Cyclone Nargis through to the election of the National League for Democracy in the November 2015 general election.
Chapter 5 examines the Abe administration’s attempts to act as a peacemaker in Myanmar’s multiple and persistent ethnic conflicts. Intent on countering Chinese influences in Myanmar’s border regions, the Japanese government provided aid and turned to the Nippon Foundation to act as a mediator between the Myanmar government and the various ethnic groups. The Japanese government’s approach masked an economic rationale predicated on the construction of economic corridors through the Mekong subregion. Japan’s state-centric approach favoured Myanmar’s military government at the expense of ethnic minorities. As Myanmar democratized, so refugees were encouraged to return to a precarious existence in Myanmar’s borderlands. At the same time, infrastructure developments allowed the Myanmar military better access to areas of ethnic conflict, transforming the contours of the conflicts themselves.
The history of Rohingya refugees is examined in this section. Muslim Rohingyas have been persecuted and subjected to regular brutal treatment in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for decades. Their lack of citizenship stems from a 1948 law that the Burmese government has refused to amend. Since most Rohingyas are not legal residents, they have trouble getting jobs and accessing education and healthcare, and it’s tough for them to travel around the country. This chapter explores race, politics, religion, and international relations as they relate to the book’s major themes. The chapter describes the Rohingyas’ escape to safety and offers an explanation for the international community’s relative indifference to the problem up until this point.
The plight of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladeshi camps has garnered little attention in the local press. Instead, the media has focused on reports of atrocities committed by the Rohingyas in Rahkine. The stories are written in such a way that the international community is unable to empathize with these people in life-threatening situations. Narratives impact how the world perceives the Rohingyas. While the media can highlight Rohingya refugees’ voices and depict various aspects of the crisis, the problem remains unresolved. Despite the fact that the crisis has captured the attention of people globally, the media’s representation of the Rohingya refugee crisis is rather disputed. Local media has described the Rohingyas as criminals, burdens, and security risks in the majority of cases. The Myanmar media, on the other hand, framed the Rohingya refugees’ narratives in such a way that world leaders and the international community feel little sympathy for them. As a result, the Rohingya refugee problem continues to grow by the day, and the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh is producing a host of economic, social, and political issues.
The first chapter, therefore, describes the central premise of the book, the research methodology and analytical framework of the study, and the contribution of this work to the wider body of knowledge. This chapter discusses the causes and drivers of identity-based politics in the Rohingya population as well as the complex challenges of managing the large-scale Rohingya exodus in Bangladesh and how to best resolve these in the long run.
Set against widespread refugee problems, and those of the Rohingyas in particular, this chapter proposes a thorough theory of refugees that places a premium on endogenous elements, including political and religious motivations. It also demonstrates how the media’s framing of the issue affects the perception of it. This chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding media framing in trying to comprehend the larger implications of mass communication, since it offers an alternative to the ‘objectivity and bias paradigm’. This chapter also delves into the history of human rights and the current predicament of the Rohingya people, as well as a number of important historical events that have affected the evolution of the Rohingya situation.
The 2017 persecution of the Rohingyas resulted in around a million Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh, India and Malaysia.
This book investigates the complex challenges of managing the large-scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh and how best to resolve these challenges in the future. Using a mixed method approach that includes a survey, key informant interviews and numerous short case studies of persecution, the authors also examine the problematic influence of the media, as local depictions of Rohingya refugees often caused further tension and divides in the midst of the refugee crisis. The book’s analysis offers a deeper understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-based politics among Myanmar’s Rohingya.
This chapter argues that the realities of civil–military relations in Vietnam defy the Western models that dominate the literature. The control architecture underlying this relationship is based on the mutual embeddedness of the military and the Communist Party. While the Party exerts political control over the military, the military’s participation and influence in elite politics and policymaking are not only legitimate but also an integral part of the architecture. The chapter explicates the architecture of Vietnam’s civil–military relations and charts the military’s influence in politics since the Third Indochina War. It shows that, paradoxically, military conflict is not the only and not even the main reason for a surge in the military’s influence in Vietnamese politics and foreign policy after the Cold War. The military gained more influence because it assumed a major political role. While the military’s influence has been on the wane recently, the Party’s control continues to prevail over the trends of commercialization and professionalization.
