Democracy in Myanmar and the Paradox of International Politics

Download or read book Democracy in Myanmar and the Paradox of International Politics written by Xiaolin Guo and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " ... Revisiting political developments in Myanmar, this paper draws attention to the unintended consequences of a "politically correct" contemporary practice, raising questions not about the values of democracy per se, but rather about the practice of intervention in that very name, irrespective of indigenous conditions. Equally, it dwells not on the technicality of "humanitarian intervention" that falls within the purview of the UN mandate, but instead, the paper challenges the use of that concept as a foreign policy tool without giving sufficient consideration to its socio-economic consequences in another country. The paper argues that without taking into account its history, ethnic complexity, and socio-economic conditions, any policy-making toward Myanmar is likely to remain irrelevant to what is going on inside the country. Finally, the relative fading of rhetoric concerning "building democracy" from foreign policy speeches in the new U.S. Administration under President Obama is eye-opening, and being watched closely by the international community to determine how the change will materialize in policy-making toward Myanmar."--Executive summary.