Acknowledgments

This book has truly been a collective effort, the work of a diverse group of people who generously offered their views, memories, information, and comments as well as providing food, shelter, transportation, and friendship during my fieldwork. Completing this project has involved me in a continuous series of exchanges and conversations with hundreds of respondents across a number of continents and over a span of six years; a score of conference presentations; countless rounds of revisions of my drafts; and huge amounts of patience, support, and assistance from family members, friends, colleagues, and grant providers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made a contribution to this book. Regrettably, I am unable to reveal many of their names and publicly acknowledge them because of my concern for their safety.

I am most fortunate to have been taken under the wings of two remarkable and generous individuals who have played an indispensible role in the birth of this book. Mark Selden has offered me sage advice and invaluable assistance along the way, ranging from generating ideas and clarifying concepts to providing detailed commentary and critical analysis of draft versions, and editing some chapters. He has remained a steadfast support from the moment I began to assemble my rambling thoughts and research findings into a book proposal until the publication of the manuscript. Professor Thara Tun Aung Chain has been my other vital source of academic and emotional support, especially in a deeply polarized and constrained political environment where it is impossible to write a critical scholarly work without evoking emotionally charged responses from various quarters. He not only carefully read and commented on my final manuscript (in addition to much of my other work), but also encouraged me to persevere whenever I doubted my ability to continue with my research. He was especially helpful in preventing me from making a number of factual errors regarding Burmese history and contemporary politics. Nevertheless, I am solely responsible for the analysis and conclusions, as well as any errors and omissions in the book.

I would also like to thank Jamie Davidson, Gerald Houseman, Ben Kerkvliet, Maung Aung Myoe, Duncan McCargo, Chad Montrie, James Scott, Ashley South, Martin Smith, Christoph Strobel, Robert Taylor, Vu Tuong, Teo You Yenn, and Meredith Weiss, who each read one or more chapters and gave me invaluable insight and comments. Feedback from an anonymous reviewer was also helpful in strengthening my argument and analysis and adding information to my final text.

I am also greatly indebted to many of my long-standing and dear friends—Saw Kapi, Dylan Chain, Ba Maung Sein, Ni Ni Mar, Saw Victor, Daniel Zoo, Saw Kedo Po, Nant Khin Aye Oo, Saw Tun Hla Baw, and Saw Steve who supplied me with information, helped me establish contact with numerous individuals, and provided moral and emotional support throughout the course of my research. I shall forever cherish my friendship with these good folk. Others whose support and encouragement I would like to acknowledge include Paul Sztumpf, Saw Eh Htoo (MIT/BARS), Christina Fink, Uncle BaSaw Khin, Uncle Manh Thein Shwe, Uncle Harry C, Uncle Allen Saw Oo, Uncle Jubilee San Hla, Uncle Htun Aung Myint, Napoleon (Ko Napo), Dr Simon Tha, Dr Simon (Mae La camp), Uncle Saw Blah Htoo, Uncle Manh Robert Zan, and the late Louisa Benson. Thanks go also to Karen from Burma, Thailand, the Thailand-Burma border areas, Malaysia and Singapore, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, who participated in this project.

I presented the findings of my research and various versions of the project, and received helpful comments at a number of meetings, conferences, and seminars at various stages of my work: the Karen Reunion 2004 (Minnesota, the United States), the Karen Reunion 2007 (Malaysia), the Southeast Asia Studies Department at the University of Michigan, the New England Political Science Association, the Political Science Department of the National University of Singapore, the Asian Research Institute (Singapore), the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore), the University of Massachusetts’ Faculty Research Forum, U Mass Lowell’s Salon Series, and the East-West Center in Washington D.C.

Necessary encouragement and a supportive environment in which to thrive as a scholar and a teacher were provided by successive chairs of the political science department at my home institution (Nick Minton, Jeffry Gerson, and Fred Lewis) and also by Nina Coppens, interim dean at University of Massachusetts Lowell. I continue to benefit from the advice and encouragement of Paul Hutchcroft and Edward Friedman, my two former supervisors at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who have both made a positive impact on my life and work.

I have also had the pleasure of working with Dr Paul Sorrell, an experienced, skilled, and perceptive editor who is well versed in social sciences literature and has a keen sense for detail and precision. Since I began working with him in 2001, Paul has never ceased to amaze me with his unique ability to translate my incoherent and insufficiently expressed ideas into appropriate and accurate prose. He has always been consistent, reliable, and timely. I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity of learning from Paul, and I hope the process will continue.

I would like to thank The East-West Center in Washington for allowing me to reuse some materials published in its Policy Studies series: The Karen Revolution in Burma: Diverse Voices, Uncertain Ends (2004), and Beyond Armed Resistance: Ethnonational Politics in Burma (Myanmar) (2011). I would also like to thank two wonderful friends who provided me with some photos and map in this book, but would like to remain anonymus.

This project would have been impossible without the generous support of the Asian Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, and the East-West Center, Washington D.C., which all offered me a welcoming and intellectually stimulating environment and office space to write my manuscript, in addition to grant funding. It is through these institutions that I have gotten to know many of my most valued colleagues, who remain a source of inspiration and support. I would also like to express my thanks to the dean’s and provost’s offices and the Department of Political Science at University of Massachusettes Lowell, which gave financial support toward my research and allowed me to take leave from teaching.

My family members are the lifeblood of this book. My fieldwork in Burma would have been painful, lonely, and intolerable had I not had a family back in Burma who always welcomed me with open arms, provided food and shelter, and surrounded me with love and support. Mom not only introduced me to her social network (and often travelled tirelessly with me to remote areas) and read and commented on my final draft, but also assumed major responsibility for my two children during my absence in Lowell. My brother-in-law, Shi Sho, early on became my designated driver and chief paperwork executor for my many visitor registrations and visa extensions in Burma. My parents-in-law in Michigan offered a summer home to my husband and our children, and my brothers- and sisters-in-law helped care for the children during this time. Aunt Mary has been a special treasure, playing the role of doting (as well as devoted and disciplined) surrogate mom to my kids.

I have also been very fortunate to have an understanding and supportive husband, who allows me to be who I am and to pursue my passion relentlessly. This book is devoted to my husband, Mawi Mawi, and our two children, Naww Naww and Vaalvie, who always welcome me back home with wild enthusiasm and forgiveness for my absence. Their love, patience, and understanding have helped sustain me through the years and kept me sane amidst adversities, stresses, and challenges.

As I look back, the boy whom I almost lost while pregnant during my adventurous fieldwork in the Karen state has now turned six. This book has taken an enormous amount of time and elicited a massive amount of patience and support from a seemingly endless number of people.

Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung

April 18, 2011

Lowell, Massachusetts