Federalism, Democracy and Civil Society
Addresses key political questions that Myanmar is facing including analysis of both institutional and policy environments and conceptual contests.
Federalism
Breen, M. G., & Htet, S. (Eds.). (2026). Federal design in Myanmar: A pathway for unity, stability, and inclusivity. Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-17091-0
He, B., Breen, M. , & Allison-Reumann, L. (2023). Comparative federalism in Asia: Democracy, ethnicity and religion. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003346784
Breen, M. (2022). Federalism and conflict resolution in Nepal and Myanmar. In S. Keil & S. Kropp (Eds.), Emerging federal structures in the post-Cold War era (pp. 141–163). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93669-3_7
Breen, M. (2018). The Road to Federalism in Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka: Finding the Middle Ground (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315098982
Democracy
Wells, T., Htet, S., & Breen, M. (2024). Conflict in Myanmar paves the way for a new way of democracy. The Diplomat. https://doi.org/10.54377/f08b-fa3f
Wells, T. (2021). Narrating democracy in Myanmar: The struggle between activists, democratic leaders and aid workers. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048553792
Breen, M., & Décobert, A. (2021). Is the military coup in Myanmar the death knell of democracy and federalism? Melbourne Asia Review, 5. https://doi.org/10.37839/mar2652-550x5.15
Civil society
Pyae Eain, P., & Wells, T. (2026). Students and revolution in Myanmar: New shifts in discourses of interethnic unity? In Youth activism in Asia: A new wave.
Wells, T. (2026). Rights refused: Grassroots activism and state violence in Myanmar, by Elliott Prasse-Freeman, Stanford University Press, 2023, 366 pp., Asian Studies Review, 50(3), 697–698. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2024.2386724
Pyae Eain, P. H. (2024). The growth of inter-ethnic solidarity among Myanmar university students after the military coup. Melbourne Asia Review, 18. https://doi.org/10.37839/MAR2652-550X18.4
Wells, T., & Lamb, V. (2020). Dilemmas for advocacy organisations in Myanmar’s changing political landscape. Melbourne Asia Review, 1, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.37839/mar2652-550x1.2
Wells, T. (2022). Challenges for Myanmar’s civil society: Depoliticization and Yangon’s urban development under the NLD government. In Authoritarianism and civil society in Asia (pp. 129–143). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003256809-10
Doffegnies, A., & Wells, T. (2021). The vernacularization of human rights discourse in Myanmar: Rejection, hybridization and strategic avoidance. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 52(2), 247–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2020.1865432
Wells, T., & Lamb, V. (2021). The imaginary of a modern city: Post-politics and Myanmar’s urban development. Urban Studies, 59(14), 2875–2892. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211044006
Wells, T. (2018). Democratic “freedom” in Myanmar. Asian Journal of Political Science, 26(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02185377.2017.1367949