IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/asseca/v7y2020i3p349-369.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Pariah Image to Partner and Back Again: The EU’s Complicated Relationship with Myanmar

Author

Listed:
  • Felix Heiduk

Abstract

To make sense of the EU’s rocky relationship with Myanmar, we need to consider how Myanmar’s political leadership is imagined in Europe. For decades, this image was bifurcated: on the one hand a military junta with its disdain for democracy and human rights. On the other hand, Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK), ‘our’ saint-like Burmese ‘Nelson Mandela’, detained but still fighting for democracy and human rights. As a result, Brussels implemented a tough sanction regime and essentially assigned Myanmar pariah status. When Suu Kyi re-joined the formal political process in 2012 and won the 2015 elections, Myanmar rapidly transitioned from pariah to partner. Fast forward to 2017 and relations between the EU and Myanmar had soured again because of the Rohingya crisis and Suu Kyi’s ‘deafening silence’ on the issue. The article argues that to understand this rollercoaster ride of EU–Myanmar relations one must turn to the imagery of Suu Kyi in Europe. The strong cognitive dissonances, created by the widening gap between the imagined ‘saint’ ASSK and the realpolitik ‘sinner’, have impacted on the EU’s relations with Myanmar and can help us make sense of the recent turbulences in the relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Heiduk, 2020. "From Pariah Image to Partner and Back Again: The EU’s Complicated Relationship with Myanmar," Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, , vol. 7(3), pages 349-369, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:asseca:v:7:y:2020:i:3:p:349-369
    DOI: 10.1177/2347797020962703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2347797020962703
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2347797020962703?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sophie Rocher, 2012. "The European Union, Burma/Myanmar and ASEAN: A challenge to European norms and values or a new opportunity?," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 165-180, July.
    2. Risse-Kappen, Thomas, 1994. "Ideas do not float freely: transnational coalitions, domestic structures, and the end of the cold war," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(2), pages 185-214, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arlo Poletti & Daniela Sicurelli, 2022. "The Political Economy of the EU Approach to the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(1), pages 47-57.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vassilis Monastiriotis & Andreas Antoniades, 2009. "Reform that! Greece’s failing reform technology: beyond ‘vested interests’ and ‘political exchange’," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 28, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    2. Julie Gilson, 2020. "EU-ASEAN relations in the 2020s: pragmatic inter-regionalism?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 727-745, July.
    3. Christian Elliott & Steven Bernstein & Matthew Hoffmann, 2022. "Credibility dilemmas under the Paris agreement: explaining fossil fuel subsidy reform references in INDCs," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 735-759, December.
    4. Olivia Gippner, 2016. "The 2 °C target: a European norm enters the international stage—following the process to adoption in China," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 49-65, February.
    5. Katja Biedenkopf, 2012. "Emissions Trading - A Transatlantic Journey for an Idea?," KFG Working Papers p0045, Free University Berlin.
    6. Marcus Holmes & Costas Panagopoulos, 2014. "The social brain paradigm and social norm puzzles," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 26(3), pages 384-404, July.
    7. Virginia Haufler, 2009. "The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme: An Innovation in Global Governance and Conflict Prevention," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(4), pages 403-416, March.
    8. Anthony Evans, 2009. "Constitutional moments in Eastern Europe and subjectivist political economy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 118-138, June.
    9. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:1351-1365 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Dakhane Noureddine & Zerrouga Ismail, 2017. "The Role of Civil Society in Foreign Policy, a Study in the Liberal Democracy-Practical Policies," Noble International Journal of Social Sciences Research, Noble Academic Publsiher, vol. 2(1), pages 1-9, January.
    11. Arie Krampf, 2013. "The Life Cycles of Competing Policy Norms - Localizing European and Developmental Central Banking Ideas," KFG Working Papers p0049, Free University Berlin.
    12. Shweta Singh, 2017. "Re-thinking the ‘Normative’ in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325: Perspectives from Sri Lanka," Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, , vol. 4(2), pages 219-238, August.
    13. Guy Ben-Porat & Shlomo Mizrahi, 2005. "Political culture, alternative politics and foreign policy: The case of Israel," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 38(2), pages 177-194, September.
    14. Diarmuid Torney, 2015. "Bilateral Climate Cooperation: The EU’s Relations with China and India," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(1), pages 105-122, February.
    15. Diarmuid Torney, 2012. "Assessing EU Leadership on Climate Change - The Limits of Diffusion in EU Relations with China and India," KFG Working Papers p0046, Free University Berlin.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:asseca:v:7:y:2020:i:3:p:349-369. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.