The Black Sheep of the Family: How Burma Defines its Foreign Relations with ASEAN

TL;DRAbstract

When Burma joined ASEAN in 1997, the military junta was attracted by the prospect of achieving some form of political legitimacy while gaining access to alternative markets to those that had been denied by Western sanctions. ASEAN, in turn, was more than happy to gain access to Burma’s abundant natural resources and justified its actions through its policy of “constructive engagement”. Burma had only emerged from relative isolation in the early 1990s and was experimenting with partial economic liberalization. ASEAN also hoped to offset the strategic impact that Burma’s close alliance with the People’s Republic of China could have in the region.\nAs Western pressure increased on the military junta, and on ASEAN, the Burmese generals have discovered that the original terms of their membership agreement may have changed. ASEAN appeared to redefine its principle of non-interference in the domestic politics of member states following the Depayin incident of 2003 where Aung San Suu Kyi was a

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper