Institutionalising Military Rule in Myanmar: External and Internal Factors

The case of Myanmar defies conventional wisdom on the chronic instability of military regimes. As one of the longest ruling military regimes in the world the military junta in Myanmar has managed to keep the military unified and to overcome several political crises in the last decades. The paper looks at the internal and external factors of regime stability in Myanmar. It is asserted that the institutional stability of the military regime relies on the cohesion of the military forces which is a product of both institutional reorganizations, purges and reshuffles within the top echelons. The regime has also maintained its dominant grip on the country due to endemic repression and the closure of all political spaces for oppositional forces.International pressure has remained minimal due to conflicting policy interests of western and asian states.