This new edition provides a sophisticated overview of the key political, economic and social challenges facing contemporary Myanmar. It will be of interest to scholars of SEA politics, economics and society.

Adam Simpson is a senior lecturer in international studies within Justice and Society at the University of South Australia. His research adopts a critical perspective and is focused on the politics of the environment, development and democratisation in Southeast Asia, particularly Myanmar and Thailand. He is the author of Energy, Governance and Security in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma): A Critical Approach to Environmental Politics in the South (Routledge 2014) and is lead editor of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar (2018), also published by Routledge.

Nicholas Farrelly is a professor and head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania, Australia. His research focuses on political conflict and social change in mainland Southeast Asia, and he has undertaken extensive research across Myanmar. He is co-editor (with Adam Simpson and Ian Holliday) of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar (Routledge 2018).

Chapter 1. Analysing a Disaster, Wrapped in a Catastrophe, Inside a Tragedy; Chapter 2. Déjà Vu All Over Again: The 2021 Coup in Historical Perspective Part 1: Politics Chapter 3. Ethnic Politics: Diversity and Agency Amidst Persistent Violence; Chapter 4. The Military: Institution and Politics; Chapter 5. Land and Law Between Reform and Revolution; Chapter 6. Democracy and Human Rights under Military Rule: Three Iterations of Myanmar's National Security State; Chapter 7. Foreign and Diplomatic (Dis)Engagement: Military Priorities, Strategic Realities and Contested Legitimacies Part 2: Economy Chapter 8. Political Regimes and Economic Policy: Isolation, Consolidation, Reintegration and Rupture; Chapter 9. Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods: Incipient Progress Aborted; Chapter 10. Natural Resource Governance and the Environment: Unconstrained Exploitation Under Authoritarianism; Chapter 11. Industrial Policy and Special Economic Zones: Engaging Transformation in a Globalised World Part 3: Society Chapter 12. Art and Heritage: Creating and Preserving Cultural Histories; Chapter 13. Public Health: State and Non-State Systems in a Changing Society; Chapter 14. Education: Reforms Undone; Chapter 15. Women in Myanmar: Change and Continuity; Chapter 16. Myanmar's Contested Borderlands: Centre-Periphery Power Relations and Fragmented Sovereignty; Chapter 17. Ethnicity, Culture and Religion: Centralisation, Burmanisation and Social Transformation; Chapter 18. Journalism and Free Speech: Freedom and Fear; Chapter 19. Myanmar's Complex and Intersecting Crises: Pathways to Accountability and International Justice; Index