ABSTRACT
The quintessential orientation of Myanmar foreign policy since independence has been neutralism. Originally driven by the Cold War and the Sino–Soviet rivalry in the context of the geo-strategic position of Burma, it was also a product of its fissiparous internal political spectrum. Its critical strategic location, effectively sandwiched between China and India, demands a relatively small state pursue such a policy. As U Nu said, ‘We are a tender gourd amid the cactus.’ But aboveground and underground communist and leftist parties, together with a more Western oriented trained elite, subjected the democratically elected government of U Nu to competing tendencies and loyalties that required deft balancing in both foreign affairs and domestic economic policies. Socialism has since been discredited in Myanmar by inept management, if dirigiste tendencies have not. But if such balance in international relations has been perceived by much of the outside world to have been lost in the past half century, it is likely to once again resume its salience in Myanmar’s foreign policy in the near future. Whether characterised by some Western concerns of a ‘rising China’ influence in Myanmar, or Chinese anxiety over Western ‘containment’ policies coupled – even coordinated – with Japanese economic assistance there, Myanmar will evolve its own ‘rebalancing’ policies to ensure its national interests are maintained and its international equilibrium restored.
