This book is centred on the role of the triangular interactions among communities, educational sectors, and academic diplomacy in facilitating peaceful societal change by evaluating the common challenges in India, Myanmar, and Thailand. It analyses urban poverty, religious freedom, ethnic diversity, women’s rights, development and regional partnership, civil-military relations, and human security in democratic transition and explores in-depth the societal issues from local and international perspectives paying special attention to the protection of ‘rights’ and promotion of ‘security’ in these societies. The book highlights that the continuous application of knowledge across borders and the promotion of international norms are essential tools in enabling social transformations from the bottom. In addition, the contributors promote further discussion on both the process and the outcome from action research projects that shape the lives of the local people and their communities. The book therefore contributes to the existing literature by offering additional insights into the societies of India, Myanmar and Thailand for policy makers, social innovators, researchers, development analysts and planners and the general public including students.

“This book focuses on the different challenges and opportunities for social transformation in India, Myanmar and Thailand, by centering communities and individuals as the main drivers of change. In doing so, it includes discussions on a wide array of issues including women’s empowerment and political participation, ethno-religious tensions, plurilingualism, education reform, community-based healthcare, climate change, disaster management, ecological systems, and vulnerability reduction. Two core foundations are introduced for ensuring broader transformations. The first is the academic diplomacy project – a framework for an engaged academic enquiry focusing on causative, curative, transformative, and promotive factors. The second is a community driven collective struggle that serves as a grassroots possibility to facilitate positive social transformation by using locally available resources and enabling the participation of the resident population. As a whole, the book conveys the importance of a diversification of engagement at the grassroots level to strengthen the capacity of individuals as decisive stakeholders, where the process of social transformation makes communities more interconnected, interdependent, multicultural and vital in building an inclusive society.”

Across the world states are seeking out new and secure supplies of energy but this search is manifesting itself most visibly in Asia where rapid industrialisation in states such as China and India is fomenting a frantic scramble for energy resources. Due to entrenched societal inequities and widespread authoritarian governance, however, the pursuit of national energy security through transnational energy projects has resulted in devastating impacts on the human and environmental security of local populations. These effects are particularly evident in both Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), which, located at the crossroads of Asia, are increasingly engaged in the cross-border energy trade. Based on extensive fieldwork and theoretical analysis this ground-breaking book proposes a new critical approach to energy and environmental security and explores the important role that both local and transnational environmental movements are playing, in the absence of effective and democratic governments, in providing ’activist environmental governance’ for energy projects throughout the region. By comparing the nature of this activism under two very different political regimes it delivers crucial theoretical insights with both academic and policy implications for the sustainable and equitable development of the South’s natural resources.

Across the world states are seeking out new and secure supplies of energy but this search is manifesting itself most visibly in Asia where rapid industrialisation in states such as China and India is fomenting a frantic scramble for energy resources. Due to entrenched societal inequities and widespread authoritarian governance, however, the pursuit of national energy security through transnational energy projects has resulted in devastating impacts on the human and environmental security of local populations. These effects are particularly evident in both Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), which, located at the crossroads of Asia, are increasingly engaged in the cross-border energy trade. Based on extensive fieldwork and theoretical analysis this ground-breaking book proposes a new critical approach to energy and environmental security and explores the important role that both local and transnational environmental movements are playing, in the absence of effective and democratic governments, in providing ’activist environmental governance’ for energy projects throughout the region. By comparing the nature of this activism under two very different political regimes it delivers crucial theoretical insights with both academic and policy implications for the sustainable and equitable development of the South’s natural resources.

Understanding the global security environment and delivering the necessary governance responses is a central challenge of the 21st century. On a global scale, the central regulatory tool for such responses is public international law. But what is the state, role, and relevance of public international law in today's complex and highly dynamic global security environment? Which concepts of security are anchored in international law? How is the global security environment shaping international law, and how is international law in turn influencing other normative frameworks? The Oxford Handbook of the International Law of Global Security provides a ground-breaking overview of the relationship between international law and global security. It constitutes a comprehensive and systematic mapping of the various sub-fields of international law dealing with global security challenges, and offers authoritative guidance on key trends and debates around the relationship between public international law and global security governance. This Handbook highlights the central role of public international law in an effective global security architecture and, in doing so, addresses some of the most pressing legal and policy challenges of our time. The Handbook features original contributions by leading scholars and practitioners from a wide range of professional and disciplinary backgrounds, reflecting the fluidity of the concept of global security and the diversity of scholarship in this area.

This book explores the multifaceted obstacles to social change that India, Myanmar and Thailand face, and ways to overcome them. With a collection of essays that identify common challenges and salient features affecting diverse communities, this volume examines topics from subnational and local perspectives across the peripheries. The book argues that identity-based divisions have created a system of oppression and political contention that have led to conflicts of different kinds, and hence serving as the common cause of different social issues. At the same time, such issues have created space for marginalized groups around the world to call for change. The volume recognizes that social transformation comes into being through an active process of deconstructing and reconstructing shared norms and ideas. The contents in this book are thus centered around two focuses: the impacts of identities and grassroots. Both of these aspects are at the heart of each country’s transformations towards democracy, peace, justice, and freedom. Under this framework, the chapters cover a diverse range of common issues, such as, minority grievances, gender inequality, ethnic identity, grassroots power in alliance-making towards community peace, recovery and resilience, digital freedom, democracy assistance and communication, and bridging multiple divides. As identity-based cleavages are daily lived experiences for individuals and communities, it requires grassroots initiatives and alliances as well as democratic communication to tackle obstacles at the root. Ultimately, the book convinces readers that social transformations must begin at the individual to communal level and local to national level.

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. Myanmar Army, National Security and Defense Policy Handbook