Lowy Lecture Series: Burma's transition: progress and prospects
After decades of authoritarian rule, Burma has won international plaudits for moves to open its political system and economy since 2011 under President Thein Sein. What are the prospects for political and economic reforms to continue in Burma, and what factors will shape the country's trajectory? What are the implications of communal unrest and internal wars within Burma, and the prospects for their resolution? How will changes within Burma affect its relations with neighbours India and China and with the broader region, Australia included? Please join us for a special panel discussion of political change and economic reform in Burma. The Lowy Institute's Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove, who visited Burma in January, will chair the panel. Other panellists will be Dr Andrew Selth, who will cover political developments, and Associate Professor Sean Turnell, who will discuss the economy.
Dr Michael Fullilove is the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Dr Fullilove writes widely on Australian foreign policy, US foreign policy and global issues in publications including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, The Washington Quarterly, The National Interest and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Australian press. His new book, Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World, will be published by The Penguin Press in the United States and Australia in 2013.
Dr Andrew Selth is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, in Brisbane. He has been studying international security issues and Asian affairs for 40 years, as a diplomat, strategic intelligence analyst and research scholar. During this time, he has published four books and more than 50 peer-reviewed works, most of them about Burma (Myanmar) and related subjects.
Dr Sean Turnell is an Associate Professor in Economics at Macquarie University, and formerly a senior analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Sean has been a long-time researcher of Burma and its economy. An advisor and consultant to a number of governments, multilateral agencies and international NGOs, Sean has also testified on Burma before US Senate and House of Representative Foreign Relations and Human Rights committees. He is the author of numerous academic papers on Burma, and has been a regular commentator on the country in the international press. His book on Burma's monetary and financial history, Fiery Dragons: Banks, Moneylenders and Microfinance in Burma, was published in 2009 by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Cornell University, and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
