Beyond National Transitions: Local Political Orders and the ReMaking of Authority in Myanmar
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Room
- RB01
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
Periods of regime transition reshape the political terrain in which local elites operate, especially in postconflict environments where authority and legitimacy have long been negotiated outside the state. My work argues that elites who consolidate power during conflict face acute pressures during transitions, adopting strategies of cooperation or contestation that directly shape how change is experienced at the subnational level.
Myanmar’s postcoup landscape since 2021 offers a stark extension of this argument. The collapse of the national transition, the fragmentation of state authority, and the rise of new armed and administrative actors have created conditions in which local elites—both established and emergent—play a decisive role in structuring governance on the ground. In many areas, the absence of the state has enabled alternative political orders to take root; in others, longstanding elites have recalibrated their strategies amid shifting military and social pressures.
This seminar uses Myanmar’s evolving conflict environment to reflect on how local elites navigate authority during moments of state rupture, and what these dynamics reveal about the limits of nationally led transitions and the enduring significance of local political orders.
Registration
This event free, open to the public, and held in-person only.
Organiser
Organised by the SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies.
South East Asian Studies Seminar Series
This semester’s theme foregrounds how communities across Southeast Asia have sought to live, believe, and flourish through the practices of everyday life. From ritual and governance to kinship and sport, the seminars explore how ordinary practices are imagined and enacted across different times and places. The series brings historical and ethnographic perspectives into conversation to illuminate the ethical, political, and creative dimensions of daily life in the region.
Contact
About the speaker
Anna Plunkett is a Lecturer in International Relations at King’s College London, where she teaches on the strategy and ethics of contemporary warfare. Her research investigates how political authority is negotiated in postconflict environments, with a particular focus on the interplay between conflict, democratisation, and state–society relations during periods of instability. She holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s, funded by an ESRC scholarship, and has over a decade of experience working as a human rights researcher in postconflict contexts.
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