Insight Myanmar31 Heinä 2025

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

Episode #371: “I remain confident in the longer term, completely, actually, that this regime is losing,” says Sean Turnell, Australian economist and former advisor to Myanmar’s civilian government, as he analyzes the recent U.S. decision to lift sanctions on several junta-linked cronies, in what his fourth appearance on this platform. While acknowledging widespread concern, he offers a measured, optimistic assessment rooted in his deep knowledge of Myanmar’s economy and U.S. sanctions policy.

Turnell explains that this recent move is “very targeted to a few individuals and a few enterprises,” and not a broad shift in policy. He rejects the claim that it was prompted by a flattering letter from Min Aung Hlaing to Donald Trump, instead attributing it just to one of the rare successes in Washington lobbying campaigns around sanctions.

He details how sanctions, managed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), have been both financially and psychologically effective, especially measures against state-owned banks, which have “choked off” the junta’s ability to conduct foreign exchange and fund its war machine. Turnell expects additional sanctions targeting entities like the Myanmar Economic Bank and possibly even the central bank, though he warns that U.S. staffing shortages may slow progress.

While acknowledging that the decision carries some unfortunate symbolism that could embolden the junta’s cronies, Turnell stresses that the core sanctions regime remains strong. But he urges relentless advocacy to prevent normalization efforts around the junta’s planned sham election. “We’ve just got to keep going,” he says in conclusion.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(564)

The Architecture Of Exclusion

Episode #549: Mohammad Siraj, a Rohingya researcher, political analyst, educator, and aspiring legal scholar living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, studies citizenship, constitutional reform, educati...

5 Kesä 1h 28min

An Officer and a Gentleman

Episode #548: Sunda Khin shares a remarkable family journey through contemporary Burmese history. She starts with her father, U Chan Htoon, who suggested that a young Indian businessman named S.N. Goe...

4 Kesä 2h 36min

No Man’s Land

Episode #547: Scott Leckie, an international human rights lawyer, and Jose Arraiza, a specialist in housing, land, and property rights and citizenship in conflict-affected settings, argue that land in...

2 Kesä 1h 42min

From the Other Shore

Episode #546: Recorded in Kuala Lumpur during Malaysia’s final stretch as ASEAN chair, this is the second episode in a three part series which looks less at policy language and more at political conse...

1 Kesä 1h 17min

The Long Fuse

Episode #545: The promise of justice for war crimes in Myanmar is far from perfect, says Dr. Stuart Casey-Maslen, a leading legal expert on disarmament and international humanitarian law. The military...

29 Touko 1h 19min

Acts of Translation

Episode #544: May Shine, a recent graduate of the Elliott School of International Affairs, approaches policy work from the position of someone shaped by displacement and minority identity within Myanm...

28 Touko 1h 17min

Through the Interregnum

Episode #543: “We believe in dialogs among people of different backgrounds,” says Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, a Thai professor at Chiang Mai University and director of the Regional Center for Social Science...

26 Touko 1h 8min

The Path Awakens

Episode #542: Max Ante, a former deeply committed practitioner of the Goenka Vipassana tradition, describes a spiritual journey shaped by a relentless desire to understand reality directly, regardless...

25 Touko 2h 30min