Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

Displacement is no longer an interruption between two stable lives. It has become a condition of its own and the institutions built to address it were never designed for that reality.

Myanmar’s brutal civil war might be entering a dangerous new phase. What began as a struggle between a military junta and pro-democracy resistance forces is increasingly becoming something else: a battle over critical minerals that power the modern global economy.

The headline writes itself: “Peace offered, rebels refuse.” It is clean, balanced and, on Myanmar, profoundly misleading. The latest call for talks by Min Aung Hlaing is not a genuine attempt to end the war. It is a political instrument designed to fail — and to fail in a very specific way.

Min Aung Hlaing’s formal elevation to the presidency of Myanmar marks more than a routine consolidation of power. It is a declaration that the country’s military has no intention of retreating, negotiating or even disguising its rule.