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Ashes of co-optation: from armed group fragmentation to the rebuilding of popular insurgency in Myanmar

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  • Brenner, David

Abstract

This article argues that attempts to buy insurgency out of violence can achieve temporary stability but risk producing new conflict. While co-optation with economic incentives might work in parts of a movement, it can spark ripple effects in others. These unanticipated developments result from the interactions of differently situated elite and non-elite actors, which can create a momentum of their own in driving collective behaviour. This article develops this argument by analysing the re-escalation of armed conflict between the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and Myanmar's armed forces after a 17-year-long ceasefire broke down in 2011. After years of mutual enrichment and collaboration between rebel and state elites and near organisational collapse, the insurgency's new-found resolve and capacity is particularly puzzling. Based on extensive field research, this article explains why and how the state's attempt to co-opt rebel leaders with economic incentives resulted in group fragmentation, loss of leadership legitimacy, increased factional contestation, growing resentment among local communities and the movement's rank and file and ultimately the rebuilding of popular resistance from within.

Suggested Citation

  • Brenner, David, 2015. "Ashes of co-optation: from armed group fragmentation to the rebuilding of popular insurgency in Myanmar," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65546, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:65546
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/65546/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 1998. "On Economic Causes of Civil War," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 563-573, October.
    2. Achim Wennmann, 2009. "Getting Armed Groups to the Table: peace processes, the political economy of conflict and the mediated state," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 1123-1138.
    3. Cramer, C., 2002. "Homo Economicus Goes to War: Methodological Individualism, Rational Choice and the Political Economy of War," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1845-1864, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anouk S. Rigterink, 2020. "Diamonds, Rebel’s and Farmer’s Best Friend: Impact of Variation in the Price of a Lootable, Labor-intensive Natural Resource on the Intensity of Violent Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 64(1), pages 90-126, January.
    2. Stefan Bächtold & Joan Bastide & Lara Lundsgaard-Hansen, 2020. "Assembling Drones, Activists and Oil Palms: Implications of a Multi-stakeholder Land Platform for State Formation in Myanmar," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(2), pages 359-378, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    non-state armed groups; insurgency; counterinsurgency; conflict resolution; Myanmar (Burma); Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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