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Title: Useful and informative contributions
Review: This book is based on papers presented at a conference held at the Australian National University in August 1999. It includes papers written by a number of highly respected Burma scholars, including Andrew Selth, Mary P Callahan and Bertil Lintner.Some readers may not like the authors' rational, dispassionate analysis of the military regime and the prospects for an orderly return to democratic rule in Myanmar. Nevertheless, the chapters by Callahan, Selth and Pedersen are required reading for policy makers and informed lay people who have an interest in the future of this beautiful, but troubled land. The chapter titled 'International policy on Burma: Coercion, persuasion or cooperation? Assessing the claims', is a particularly sobering look at the prospects for 'regime-change' through international pressure, sanctions or boycotts.Although the march of time is making it a little dated, there is much about this book that will repay the effort of reading.
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