Paper short abstract:

Successive government administrations in Myanmar have had a state centric focus, to the detriment of human security. The 2015 National League for Democracy victory was supposed to address such issues. Structural impediments to change have, however, left the most vulnerable insecure.

Paper long abstract:

Martin Smith has described Myanmar as pre-eminent examples of post-colonial states subsumed in what development analysis describes as a "conflict trap" (Smith, 2007. p. 3). Facing diverse challenges, including ethnic insurgencies, disputed borders, and the remnants of colonial and/or Cold War experiences, successive governments have adopted state-centric national security policies with an emphasis on national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity (Tin, 1998, p. 392). The devestation wrought by Cyclone Nargis in 2008 revealed the extent to which nation security and development prioritisation had imperilled the human security of the most vulnerable, and as a result significant governance changes were set in motion resulting in the dramatic electoral win of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in 2015. Much has been expected of the new NLD administration, yet its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has found herself the subject of international criticism for allowing the continued persecution of one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the country, the Muslim Rohingya. This presentation contends that it is the continued state centric policy focus of success governments, combined with structural impediments to change, which have allowed and contributed to human insecurity in Myanmar.