Authoritarian Stability and the Challenge of Federal Aspirations in Myanmar’s Post-Independence Conflict
The question of federalism is the structural core of the conflict between Ethnic Armed Organisations and Tatmadaw. This article uses Hobbes’ concept of the state of nature to examine why internal strife persists despite decades of State building and democratisation efforts. The Hobbesian framework is specifically used to understand the paradox: the Tatmadaw invokes Hobbesian justification for centralised authority for prevention of chaos, yet simultaneously produces the conditions of ungoverned violence it claims to prevent. This contradiction, multiplied by the military’s categorical rejection of federalism, explains both the durability of armed resistance and the failure of successive peace processes.
- Vijay Kumar Maidergi, Tabassum Iqbal |
- March-April 2026 |
