Clash Of Interests
A triad of Great Power interests intersects in the confined area of
the India-Myanmar border, and each actor has differing objectives,
motivations, and apprehensions. When one includes Myanmar itself into
the foray, a ‘quarrelling quartet’ of contradictory trajectories
emerges:
Myanmar:
Internal Balancing
Beginning with the country most adversely affected by domestic and
foreign militancy (as well as the subject of the three Great Powers’
intrigues), Naypyidaw is in the midst of a very dangerous internal and
external balancing act. On the home front, it’s struggling to manage an extraordinarily sensitive truce between the myriad rebel groups fighting against it. General elections are planned for early November, and Myanmar’s new Western partners will be observantly watching
to make sure that it goes according to their subjectively determined
expectations, and any internal turmoil prior to the vote could
‘discredit’ it or result in its delay. Both of these scenarios would see
the West serve harsh rebukes and thinly veiled economic and political
threats to Myanmar, which the country’s authorities are keen to avoid at
this moment, thus bringing one to the topic of the international
tightrope that it’s currently walking.
