Rohingya Crisis

Drawing on fieldwork carried out in the borderlands between Bangladesh and Myanmar, this study examines outbreaks of communal violence in western Myanmar and what they mean for regional security. It sets out the competing accounts of how the violence unfolded and weighs the part played by different groups involved in the conflict.

The author contends that unrest in western Myanmar will ripple outward, affecting security across South and Southeast Asia. He warns that if violence in Rakhine state persists, it could fuel cross-border crime and armed extremism. The political situation inside Myanmar, he notes, overlaps with a fast-changing terrorist threat in Southeast Asia, which makes the Rohingya crisis extremely difficult for governments to manage.