All Going According to Plan?: The Armed Forces and Government in Myanmar

It has become the conventional wisdom that the transition from authoritarian rule to a more democratic form of government in Myanmar was due to the efforts of Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy, the pressures applied against the military regime by Western democracies and belated recognition by the ruling generals that Myanmar could not continue down the path of political and economic isolation. This narrative suits many of the key actors in this drama, but it denies independent agency to the most important player of all, namely the country's armed forces. The paradigm shift which has occurred in the country's political landscape over the past decade can more accurately be described as the result of a long-term plan drawn up by Myanmar's military leadership, which surrendered absolute power in a calculated move to advance its own agenda through the controlled transition to a "disciplined democracy".