This study contributes to the understanding of major river evolution in Southeast Asia during the Cenozoic. In order to trace the evolution of a hypothesized palaeo-Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy River, this work undertakes the first systematic provenance study of detrital minerals from Cenozoic synorogenic fluvial and deltaic sedimentary rocks of the Central Burma Basin, employing a combination of high precision geochronology, thermochronology, and geochemistry analytical techniques on single grain detrital zircon and white mica. The dataset is compared to published isotopic data from potential source terranes in order to determine source provenance and exhumation history from source to sink. A Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy connection existed as far back as ca. 42 Ma and disconnection occurred at 18–20 Ma, based on provenance changes detected using a combination of U-Pb ages and εHf(t) values on detrital zircons, and ⁴ºAr/³⁹Ar dating on detrital micas. During the Eocene and Oligocene, units are dominated by U-Pb age and high positive εHf(t) values, characteristic of a southern Lhasa Gangdese magmatic arc source. An antecedent Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy River system formed the major river draining the eastern Himalaya at this time. A significant change in provenance is seen in the early Miocene, where detritus is predominantly derived from bedrock of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, western Yunnan and Burma, a region drained by the modern Irrawaddy-Chindwin river system characterized by Cenozoic U-Pb ages and negative εHf(t) values. This is attributed to the disconnection of the Yarlung-Irrawaddy River and capture by the proto-Brahmaputra River, re-routing Tibetan Transhimalayan detritus to the eastern Himalayan foreland basin. Re-set zircon fission track ages of 14-8 Ma present in all units is used to infer post-depositional basin evolution related to changes in the stress regime accommodating the continued northward migration of India. The early Miocene initiation of the Jiali-Parlung-Gaoligong-Sagaing dextral shear zone and the continued northward movement of the coupled India-Burma plate aided in focusing deformation inside the syntaxis contributing to the disconnection of the Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy system, linking surface deformation and denudation with processes occurring at deeper crustal levels.

The renewed interest in empire, particularly in its British and American variants, has brought into sharper relief the difficulties both metropoles faced in projecting order in the global south. Far from cohesive entities, the British and American empires tried to manage territories that defied many of the political, economic, and legal systems, as well as normative and moral understandings, that enabled their imperial ascendancy. Despite a considerable literature about how metropoles comprehended these frustrated imperial plans, limited insights can be found into the way Britain and the United States coped with the influence of war in the uneven expansion of order. This challenge is brought into focus by examining one of the most direct formulations of the relationship between war and order in US and British imperialism, namely the concept of warlord. The concept’s history, it is argued, provides a glimpse into the far-reaching influence cultural constructions of war had in how US and British policymakers, journalists, and advocates conceived of and projected order in the non-European world. Such influential understandings also inspired overstated conclusions about the degree to which both imperial powers could realise their visions of order in the global south. Drawing on discursive and historical methods, the dissertation develops a conceptual framework that distils the core features of ‘warlords’ in the US and British imperial imaginaries. This conceptual approach is used to revisit some of the most formative encounters with colonial and contemporary ‘warlords’, as captured in British and American policy debates, political commentary, and popular culture, during two highpoints in British and American imperial history, 1815-1914 and 1989-2006 respectively. These arguments bring to the forefront how instead of an ancillary part of conclusions about the inferiority of non-European cultures, as suggested in much of the post-colonial literature, notions of war conditioned many of Britain and the United States’ enduring conception of and strategies for managing the uneven development of order in the global south.

This thesis challenges the prevailing academic and journalistic consensus that ASEAN states, bound by a cast-iron norm of non-interference, do not intervene in other states’ internal affairs. It argues that ASEAN states have frequently engaged in acts of intervention, often with very serious, negative consequences. Using methods of critical historical sociology, the thesis reconstructs the history of ASEAN’s non-interference principle and interventions from ASEAN’s inception onwards, drawing on sources including ASEAN and UN documents, US and UK archives, and policymaker interviews. It focuses especially on three case studies: East Timor, Cambodia, and Myanmar. The thesis argues that both the emergence of ideologies of non-intervention and their violation can be explained by the social conflicts animating state policies. Non-interference was developed by embattled, authoritarian, capitalist elites in an attempt to bolster their defence of capitalist social order from radical challenges. Where adherence to non-intervention failed to serve this purpose, it was discarded or manipulated to permit cross-border ‘containment’ operations. After communism was defeated in the ASEAN states, foreign policy continued to promote the interests of dominant, state-linked business groups and oligarchic factions. Non-interference shifted to defend domestic power structures from the West’s liberalising agenda. However, ASEAN elites continued meddling in neighbouring states even as containment operations were discarded. This contributed to the collapse of Cambodia’s ruling coalition in 1997, and ASEAN subsequently intervened to restore it. The 1997 Asian financial crisis dealt a crippling blow to ASEAN. To contain domestic unrest in Indonesia, core ASEAN states joined a humanitarian intervention in East Timor in 1999. In the decade since, non-interference has been progressively weakened as the core members struggle to regain domestic legitimacy and lost international political and economic space. This is expressed most clearly in ASEAN’s attempts to insert itself into Myanmar’s democratisation process after decades of failed ‘constructive engagement’.

Le Myanmar traverse un processus de libéralisation politique qui a été entamé par le haut. Le régime militaire a tenu des élections générales en 2010, lesquelles ont placé au pouvoir un nouveau gouvernement composé à la fois de civils et de militaires. Depuis, la majorité des sanctions imposées par plusieurs États occidentaux au Myanmar ont été levées, et on observe une diversification des relations internationales du pays. Imbriqué à la sphère d’influence chinoise depuis quelques années, celui-ci rétablit des contacts diplomatiques et économiques avec l’Occident. Peu de chercheurs ont tenté d’expliquer les causes de cette transition politique, et le lien entre libéralisation politique et diversification des relations internationales n’a pas encore été expliqué. Ce mémoire propose de le faire en utilisant un modèle théorique issu de deux types de littérature, celle sur la culture stratégique et celle sur les transitions politiques. Il suggère que la libéralisation politique du Myanmar s’explique par les luttes d’influences au sein du régime entre deux sous-cultures stratégiques, les hardliners et les softliners. L’application des normes favorisées par les hardliners ayant échoué dans l’atteinte des objectifs stratégiques du régime, les softliners ont pu imposer leurs propres préférences normatives. Il propose également que la libéralisation politique était une étape nécessaire pour que le gouvernement birman puisse diversifier ses relations internationales. / Myanmar is going through a political liberalization process which was initiated from above. The military regime held a general election in 2010, which brought to power a new government composed of both civilians and militaries. Since then, most of the sanctions imposed to Myanmar by Western states were lifted, and we observe a diversification of the country's international relations. Nested in the Chinese sphere of influence in recent years, Myanmar restores diplomatic and economic ties with the West. Few researchers have attempted to explain the causes of this political transition, and the links between the political liberalization and the diversification of international relations has not yet been explained. This thesis proposes to do so by using a theoretical model derived from two types of literature, the one on strategic culture and the one on political transitions. It suggests that Myanmar’s political liberalization is due to power struggles within the regime between two strategic subcultures, the hardliners and softliners. The application of norms favored by hardliners having failed in achieving the strategic objectives of the regime, softliners were able to impose their own normative preferences. It also suggests that the political liberalization process was a necessary step for the Burmese government to be able to diversify its international relations.

Héritier de l’universalisme humaniste de Rabindranath Tagore par sa formation à Śāntiniketan en Inde, le ditpère de l’art moderne birman Bagyi Aung Soe (1923/24–1990) se consacra à figurer les réalités ultimes enfonction des enseignements bouddhiques. Pour ce faire, il mit au point un langage pictural qu’il baptisa lapeinture « manaw maheikdi dat » qui signifie la création artistique par la culture mentale. Ses référencesvisuelles, variant de la physique à l’ésotérisme bouddhique, de la culture populaire à la poésie, comprennent toutce qui fut à sa portée intellectuelle et spirituelle dans la Birmanie socialiste militaire de 1962 à 1988. Soninsistance sur la somme des héritages propres à cet espace-temps, de même que son dépassement descloisonnements conceptuels selon les disciplines, les frontières nationales ou les divisions chronologiques, exigeun récit conçu au regard des significations contextuelles, un récit adapté et affranchi du modèle prétendumentinternational de l’art euraméricain. Afin de proposer un récit sur comment il compta rendre manifestel’insaisissable selon les circonstances propres au contexte de sa vie, nous mettons l’accent sur les conditionsaccueillant la genèse et la diffusion de cette production artistique dite « la plus moderne de l’art moderne » enraison de sa dimension transnationale et transhistorique. À partir d’une sélection parmi plus de quatre milleoeuvres et de centaines de témoignages écrits et oraux recueillis, nous examinons non seulement la fabrication decette peinture qui reste aussi non étudiée en Birmanie qu’inconnue de la scène internationale, mais aussi lesmanières dont nous pouvons la lire et la voir. / A student at Rabindranath Tagore’s ashram in Śāntiniketan, India, Myanmar’s “father of modern art” BagyiAung Soe (1923/24–1990) embraced his Indian gurus’ concept of art and the artist. In the spirit of the laureate’shumanist universalism, he strove to picture Buddhist teachings. His signature idiom christened “manawmaheikdi dat”, which has yet to be studied in Myanmar and is virtually unknown at the international level, reliedon meditation to achieve advanced mental power in order to picture the most elemental components of allphenomena, and its visual references included all that was possibly accessible under socialist rule in Burma(1962–1988). With little regard for artistic conventions and categorisations according to discipline, nation andchronology, Aung Soe drew from the sum of artistic, intellectual and spiritual traditions defining his space andtime, varying from quantum physics to esoteric Buddhism, from popular culture to poetry. The nature of hisapproach, method and subject matter, coupled with his country’s exceptional circumstances, demands a newnarrative of art that is unfettered by the assumptions inherent to the purportedly international framework ofEuramerican modern art. Focusing on the contextual significances of the genesis and reception of manawmaheikdi dat painting, this dissertation examines the making, the reading and the seeing of this pictoriallanguage whose transnational and transhistorical dimension renders it “the most modern of modern art”. Basedon a selection of the artist’s works and writings, as well as witnesses of his life and practice, we attempt a storyof how he pictured and made manifest the formless on his own terms.

An estimated twelve million people worldwide are stateless, or living without the legal bond of citizenship or nationality with any state, and consequently face barriers to employment, property ownership, education, health care, customary legal rights, and national and international protection. More than one-quarter of the world's stateless people live in Thailand. This feminist ethnography explores the impact of statelessness on the everyday lives of Burmese women political exiles living in Thailand through the paradigm of human security and its six indicators: food, economic, personal, political, health, and community security. The research reveals that exclusion from national and international legal protections creates pervasive and profound political and personal insecurity due to violence and harassment from state and non-state actors. Strong networks, however, between exiled activists and their organizations provide community security, through which stateless women may access various levels of food, economic, and health security. Using the human security paradigm as a metric, this research identifies acute barriers to Burmese stateless women exiles' experiences and expectations of well-being, therefore illustrating the potential of human security as a measurement by which conflict resolution scholars and practitioners may describe and evaluate their work in the context of positive peace.

東南亞國家自十五世紀以來即置於歐洲列強統治之下。第二次世界大戰結束，同時對東南亞與歐洲之發展造成影響。東南亞各國於二次大戰期間，逐漸經由民族自覺形成區域主義，終於在一九六七年建立「東南亞國家協會」（ASEAN，以下簡稱東協）；歐洲各國則基於經濟合作之考量而逐步建立「歐洲共同體」（EC，以下簡稱歐體）。 經由東方歷史薰陶與村莊文化，尤其是馬來文化中協商討論與共識的影響，形成東協於國際組織中特殊之共識決外交政策，並以一致之立場反映於國際間。歐體發展較早且組織亦較東協成熟，惟各國基於本身利益之考量，對於國際議題往往意見相左，使歐體於國際間之團結程度反而不若東協。 一九七二年開始，東協與歐體雙方展開接觸，東協需要來自歐體之經貿優惠、技術轉讓、合作開發與政治支持，歐體則需要來自東協提供之原料與市場，雙方基於實際利益考量而進行合作是相當自然的，彼此於一九七八年正式展開部長級會議並於一九八零年簽訂合作協定。此後，雙方將合作範疇逐步擴大，並針對多項國際議題進行具體合作。 冷戰結束後，國際局勢有新的發展，東協與歐體皆有擴增，歐體進一步發展成「歐洲聯盟」（EU，以下簡稱歐盟），東協亦朝向十國組織邁進，彼此合作更為密切，亦促成兩次「亞歐高峰會」（ASEM）之召開。但雙方亦因緬甸之加入東協與東帝汶等人權議題產生歧見。 整體而言，東協對歐盟之政策係以彼此共識為基礎，以整體立場對歐盟尋求最大利益。展望未來，東協與歐盟之合作關係，將於現今基礎上繼續擴展其他包括安全面向之合作。 / Southeast Asia had been dominated by European Powers since 15thcntury until the second world war. After the second world war, thenewly independent states emerge in the southeast asia region, andASEAN was founded in 1967. ASEAN is famous of its decision-making process, well known as"common decision", every member's opinion must be heared by theothers, and "feelers technique" do help each other on understandingmutually. According to common interests, ASEAN and EC begin dialoguessince 1978, and signed an agreement on cooperation in 1980. As the Cold War ended in 1990s, ASEAN and EC both expandedthemselves, and under the urges of both sides, the ASEM was held inBangkok and London 1996 and 1998, to get mutual understandings andto promote the common interests for bothsides. The most difference between ASEAN and EC is the human rights issue,especially on Burma and East Timor. Fortunately, ASEAN and EC will intense their cooperativerelationship in the foreseenable future.

The main purpose of this thesis is to discuss what exile writing is and who can be seen as an exile writer. If the word “exile” is related to forced dislocation, like Paul Tabori and Sopia A. McClennen describes it, who can be viewed as an exile writer? Is Anders Olsson’s definition of an exile writer acceptable or not? Could the The Escape, a future story about exiled Northern Europeans in Myanmar, be classified as exile literature? Another purpose with this text is to describe how a story about exile can be made realistic and tangible to a reader who has not experienced exile. How can the exile experience be shown in a text? The third major aim with this thesis is to discuss how an ethnographic study differs from a fictive novel about another culture. Is an academic text more close to reality than fiction and what is reality anyway? Is it possible to make a mix of an academic study and a fictive novel?

This dissertation examines the cross-border flows of media texts, migration and the construction of ethnic identity in the receiving state. It focuses on the recent wave of Shan ethnic nationals from Burma who migrate to seek work in Thailand and their relationships with Shan media -- primarily in the forms of audio cassettes, video CDs, and movies -- that follow these mobile people. My purpose in linking mass media and migration is to understand how displacement shapes the social construction of identity and how Shan ethnic media plays a significant role in shaping identity in a situation of displacement. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic work with the Shan migrant community in Chiang Mai, Thailand, this dissertation argues on two grounds. First, while Shan media shows the ability to cross the borders, and hence disturbs the boundaries of the state, transnational flows are also shaped by the politics and practices of a nation-state. The diversification of Shan media that now include a variety of local, national and transnational as well as commercial and community media illustrates ways in which mass media can offer both a technology of state control as well as parallel spaces for alternative transnational practice. Second, I argue for the need to pay attention to diversity within a migrant population, in particular the presence of various groups of migrants at the same point of time. In trying to understand how different social and material conditions and the history of migration shape the ways people ascribe to ethnic and national identity, this study draws on four different categories of Shan migrants -- the new arrivals, the long-term residents, the ethno-nationalists, and the exile prisoners. Each of these points to different ways of engagement with this media and the different meanings the individuals in each category ascribe to the notion of Shan nation and to what it means to be Shan. / text

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by 2012 there were 15.4 million refugees and 28.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) forced to flee their homes due to war or violent conflict across the globe. Upon arrival in their host settings, forced migrants struggle with acute health and material needs, as well as issues related to identity, politics, power and place. The Karen ethnic minority of Burma (also known as Myanmar) has been involved in a prolonged civil conflict with the Burmese military government for nearly six decades. This fighting has resulted in massive internal displacement and refugee flight, and although a ceasefire was signed in 2012, continued violence has been reported. This study among the displaced Karen population along the Thai-Burma border examines the relationships between traditional – or indigenous – medicine, the population's health needs, and the broader social and political context. Research was conducted using an ethnographic case-study approach among 170 participants along the Thai-Burma border between 2003 and 2011. Research findings document the rapid evolution and formalisation of the Karen traditional medical system. Findings show how the evolutionary process was influenced by social needs, an existing base medical knowledge among traditional health practitioners, and a dynamic social and political environment. Evidence suggests that that Karen traditional medicine practitioners, under the leadership of the Karen National Union (KNU) Department of Health and Welfare, are serving neglected and culturally-specific health needs among border populations. Moreover, this research also provides evidence that Karen authorities are revitalising their traditional medicine, as part of a larger effort to strengthen their social infrastructure including the Karen self-determination movement. In particular, these Karen authorities are focused on building a sustainable health infrastructure that can serve Karen State in the long term. From the perspectives of both refugee health and development studies, the revival of Karen traditional medicine within a refugee and IDP setting represents an adaptive response by otherwise medically under-served populations. This case offers a model of healthcare self-sufficiency that breaks with the dependency relationships characteristic of most conventional refugee and IDP health services. And, through the mobilisation of tradition for contemporary needs, it offers a dimension of cultural continuity in a context where discontinuity and loss of culture are hallmarks of the forced migration experience.