Wesley Beggs

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Keywords

Burma, Ethnic Conflict, Discrimination, Armed Conflict

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

Since independence from colonial rule in 1948, Burma/Myanmar has suffered some of the longest-running and most diverse ethnic insurgencies in the world. Several of the ethnic minorities in the borderlands have organized armed movements against the central government in the pursuit of greater autonomy, but the conflict-affected borderlands are also the location of many recent development projects financed by foreign actors. This study explores the relationship between foreign direct investment activity in the ethnic borderlands and the armed insurgencies by examining the effects of building hydropower dams as well as oil and gas pipelines in ethnic states. This research found that foreign-financed dams and pipelines resulted in displacement, militarization, and increasing human rights abuses. In turn, these negative consequences led to an increase in violence in the ethnic states, the renewal of conflict where ceasefire agreements were in place, and fragmentation of some ethnic groups. These findings are useful in understanding how foreign direct investment can influence similar conflicts in other areas of the world.

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