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From Pariah Image to Partner and Back Again: The EU’s Complicated Relationship with Myanmar
Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs Pub Date : 2020-12-01 , DOI: 10.1177/2347797020962703
Felix Heiduk 1
Affiliation  

To make sense of the EU’s rocky relationship with Myanmar, we need to consider how Myanmar’s political leadership is imagined in Europe. For decades, this image was bifurcated: on the one hand a military junta with its disdain for democracy and human rights. On the other hand, Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK), ‘our’ saint-like Burmese ‘Nelson Mandela’, detained but still fighting for democracy and human rights. As a result, Brussels implemented a tough sanction regime and essentially assigned Myanmar pariah status. When Suu Kyi re-joined the formal political process in 2012 and won the 2015 elections, Myanmar rapidly transitioned from pariah to partner. Fast forward to 2017 and relations between the EU and Myanmar had soured again because of the Rohingya crisis and Suu Kyi’s ‘deafening silence’ on the issue. The article argues that to understand this rollercoaster ride of EU–Myanmar relations one must turn to the imagery of Suu Kyi in Europe. The strong cognitive dissonances, created by the widening gap between the imagined ‘saint’ ASSK and the realpolitik ‘sinner’, have impacted on the EU’s relations with Myanmar and can help us make sense of the recent turbulences in the relationship.

中文翻译:

从贱民形象到伙伴再回来:欧盟与缅甸的复杂关系

为了理解欧盟与缅甸的不稳定关系,我们需要考虑在欧洲是如何想象缅甸的政治领导地位的。几十年来,这种形象一直存在分歧:一方面是一个蔑视民主和人权的军政府。另一方面,“我们的”圣人般的缅甸人“纳尔逊曼德拉”昂山素季(ASSK)被拘留,但仍在争取民主和人权。结果,布鲁塞尔实施了严厉的制裁制度,并基本上赋予了缅甸贱民地位。当昂山素季在 2012 年重新加入正式政治进程并赢得 2015 年选举时,缅甸迅速从贱民转变为伙伴。快进到 2017 年,由于罗兴亚危机和昂山素季在这个问题上的“震耳欲聋的沉默”,欧盟和缅甸之间的关系再次恶化。这篇文章认为,要理解欧盟-缅甸关系的这种过山车,必须转向欧洲的昂山素季形象。由想象中的“圣人”ASSK 与现实政治“罪人”之间不断扩大的差距所造成的强烈认知失调,已经影响了欧盟与缅甸的关系,并可以帮助我们理解最近关系中的动荡。
更新日期:2020-12-01
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