Burma Redux: Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar.

• Author: Wai, Kyaw San

Burma Redux: Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar. By Ian Holliday. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011/New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. Paperback: 287pp.

After Cyclone Nargis devastated the Ayeyarwaddy Delta in May 2008, there was much debate concerning how the international community should respond to Myanmar's biggest natural disaster. Then French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner suggested implementing the United Nations' (UN) Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to deliver aid as the then ruling junta failed to meet human security obligations and also limited foreign humanitarian aid and disaster relief assistance. While a tripartite arrangement involving the Myanmar government, ASEAN and the UN was eventually inked that enabled a coordinated relief operation, Cyclone Nargis presented a key case in the debate of intervention concerning Myanmar dating back to the 1988 coup: how, and to what extent, should external entities be involved in Myanmar?

Focusing on the theme of global justice and the debate on intervention, Ian Holliday's book examines the key issues pertaining to external intervention and applies the analysis to Myanmar. The first book-length study on Myanmar to be completed since the contentious 2010 general elections, it affirms the importance of foreign intercession in Myanmar through grassroots engagement efforts encompassing foreign states, aid agencies and corporations.

The first four chapters course through Myanmar's colonial and post-colonial history, and provide succinct contextualization. Holliday meticulously describes how Myanmar came to its current state of affairs: the "liberal imperialism" enterprise under the British which was unrivalled in terms of colonial economic mobilization; the birth of Burman nationalism; the post independence turmoil and the military's rise to domination; the plight of the country under General Ne Win's ostensibly socialist rule; and the reassertion of military dominance after the September 1988 coup. These chapters allow the reader to contextualize the reforms currently underway in Myanmar and the formidable challenges facing the country's democratization process.

The subsequent chapters are theory oriented, as the author examines the gamut of academic work concerning justice and the approaches and roles of foreign involvement. Chapter Five covers global attention towards Myanmar over the years, and examines the aspects and failures of both...