How geopolitics helped create the latest Rohingya crisis
Matteo Fumagalli, University of St Andrews This is not the first clash between members of the stateless and discriminated Muslim community and Myanmar’s armed forces, nor the first Rohingya refugee crisis. Yet the latest military offensive is unprecedented in brutality and scale. An account of the timing of the current crisis should consider how Myanmar’s government found itself in such a favourable global environment, with its giant neighbours India and – crucially – China embracing the government’s official narrative . A politically distant and distracted US administration was also convenient. Disenfranchisement and discrimination are nothing new for the Rohingya population, a community of 1.3m people settled in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar’s Rakhine state . YouTube/AP. With domestic dynamics and popular attitudes towards the Rohingyas unchanged since violence erupted in 2012, and ample opportunities in recent ye...