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All Outputs (34)

The political economy of illicit drug crops: forum introduction (2024)
Journal Article
Thomson, F., Meehan, P., & Goodhand, J. (2024). The political economy of illicit drug crops: forum introduction. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 51(4), 763-800. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2024.2328647

This article and the forum it introduces examine illicit drug crop (IDC) economies from agrarian perspectives. Examining IDCs as a group implies analysing how prohibition distinguishes them from other (licit) crops. We identify seven mechanisms throu... Read More about The political economy of illicit drug crops: forum introduction.

Drugs and extractivism: opium cultivation and drug use in the Myanmar-China borderlands (2023)
Journal Article
Meehan, P., & Dan, S. L. (2024). Drugs and extractivism: opium cultivation and drug use in the Myanmar-China borderlands. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 51(4), 922-959. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2023.2271403

This paper explores the intersections between two phenomena that have shaped eastern Kachin State in Myanmar’s northern borderlands with China since the late 1980s: the transformation of once-remote spaces into resource frontiers shaped by overlappin... Read More about Drugs and extractivism: opium cultivation and drug use in the Myanmar-China borderlands.

Drugs, frontier capitalism and illicit peasantries: towards a comparative research agenda (2023)
Journal Article
Goodhand, J., Ballvé, T., & Meehan, P. (2024). Drugs, frontier capitalism and illicit peasantries: towards a comparative research agenda. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 51(4), 801-825. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2023.2258808

A defining character of drugs-affected frontier regions is their dynamic instability and their boom-and-bust cycles. These are violent and disturbed landscapes, in which illicit drug economies play a transformative role. But not all frontiers are the... Read More about Drugs, frontier capitalism and illicit peasantries: towards a comparative research agenda.

Young people’s everyday pathways into drug harms in Shan State, Myanmar (2022)
Journal Article
Meehan, P., Sadan, M., Aung Hla, S., Kham Phu, S., & Muai Oo, N. (2022). Young people’s everyday pathways into drug harms in Shan State, Myanmar. Third World Quarterly, 43(11), 2712-2730. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2022.2090923

In recent decades, youth drug use has become a cause of increasing concern across Asia and has inspired hardening drug control measures. However, consistently missing from drug narratives is a deeper engagement with young people themselves on why the... Read More about Young people’s everyday pathways into drug harms in Shan State, Myanmar.

Brokered Rule: Militias, Drugs, and Borderland Governance in the Myanmar-China Borderlands (2022)
Journal Article
Meehan, P., & Dan, S. L. (2023). Brokered Rule: Militias, Drugs, and Borderland Governance in the Myanmar-China Borderlands. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 53(4), 561-583. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2022.2064327

This article develops the concept of brokerage to analyse the systems of borderland governance that have underpinned processes of state formation and capitalist development in the conflict-affected Myanmar-China borderland region of northern Shan Sta... Read More about Brokered Rule: Militias, Drugs, and Borderland Governance in the Myanmar-China Borderlands.

Difficult Development Trade-Offs Amidst 'Transition': Exploring Power and Politics in Post-2010 Myanmar (2022)
Book Chapter
Meehan, P. (2022). Difficult Development Trade-Offs Amidst 'Transition': Exploring Power and Politics in Post-2010 Myanmar. In C. Yamahata, & B. Anderson (Eds.), Demystifying Myanmar's Transition and Political Crisis (231-253). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6675-9_12

Development studies have often grappled with how to bridge the ‘theory/policy divide’ that exists within the discipline between an intellectual focus on historical processes of social change, and more practical objectives aimed at designing intervent... Read More about Difficult Development Trade-Offs Amidst 'Transition': Exploring Power and Politics in Post-2010 Myanmar.

"Ploughing the land five times": Opium and agrarian change in the ceasefire landscapes of south-western Shan State, Myanmar (2021)
Journal Article
Meehan, P. (2022). "Ploughing the land five times": Opium and agrarian change in the ceasefire landscapes of south-western Shan State, Myanmar. Journal of Agrarian Change, 22(2), 254-277. https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12446

This paper explores the relationship between the illicit opium economy and processes of agrarian change in south-western Shan State, Myanmar. This is a region where opium production has risen significantly since the 1990s despite the declining territ... Read More about "Ploughing the land five times": Opium and agrarian change in the ceasefire landscapes of south-western Shan State, Myanmar.

Development Zones in Conflict-Affected Borderlands: The Case of Muse, Northern Shan State, Myanmar (2021)
Book Chapter
Meehan, P., Aung Hla, S., & Kham Phu, S. (2021). Development Zones in Conflict-Affected Borderlands: The Case of Muse, Northern Shan State, Myanmar. In M. Chettri, & M. Eilenberg (Eds.), Development Zones in Asian Borderlands. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463726238_ch06

How are development zones “made” in conflict-affected borderlands? Addressing this question, this chapter explores the transformation of the Myanmar-China border town of Muse since 1988. Despite ongoing armed conflict in northern Myanmar, Muse has be... Read More about Development Zones in Conflict-Affected Borderlands: The Case of Muse, Northern Shan State, Myanmar.

The Pat Jasan drug eradication social movement in Northern Myanmar. Part one: Origins and reactions (2021)
Journal Article
Dan, S. L., Maran, J. H. P., Sadan, M., Meehan, P., & Goodhand, J. (2021). The Pat Jasan drug eradication social movement in Northern Myanmar. Part one: Origins and reactions. International Journal of Drug Policy, 89, Article 103181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103181

This commentary provides an introduction to the origins and emergence of Pat Jasan, a social movement that emerged amongst the Kachin population of northern Myanmar in response to a perceived crisis of illicit drug production and consumption. Althoug... Read More about The Pat Jasan drug eradication social movement in Northern Myanmar. Part one: Origins and reactions.

Myanmar: Why peace remains elusive (2021)
Digital Artefact
Meehan, P. (2021). Myanmar: Why peace remains elusive. [MP3]

After decades of military rule, Myanmar’s 2010 General Election appeared to be a watershed moment and inspired hopes that Myanmar was embarking upon what the World Bank dubbed as a ‘triple transition’: from authoritarian military rule to democratic g... Read More about Myanmar: Why peace remains elusive.

Critical policy frontiers: The drugs-development-peacebuilding trilemma (2021)
Journal Article
Goodhand, J., Meehan, P., Bhatia, J., Ghiabi, M., & Gutierrez Sanin, F. (2021). Critical policy frontiers: The drugs-development-peacebuilding trilemma. International Journal of Drug Policy, 89, Article 103115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103115

Recent years have seen the emergence of a policy consensus around the need for fundamental reforms of global drug policies. This is reflected in the call for ‘development-oriented drug policies’ that align and integrate drug policies with development... Read More about Critical policy frontiers: The drugs-development-peacebuilding trilemma.

Integrated Approaches to Addressing Drugs and Development Challenges in Myanmar’s Borderlands (2020)
Preprint / Working Paper
Meehan, P. Integrated Approaches to Addressing Drugs and Development Challenges in Myanmar’s Borderlands. Geneva

Policymakers have placed growing weight on the importance of integrated approaches for tackling complex development challenges. There have also been increased calls to focus attention and resources on addressing the specific challenges posed by borde... Read More about Integrated Approaches to Addressing Drugs and Development Challenges in Myanmar’s Borderlands.

Precarity, poverty and poppy: Encountering development in the uplands of Shan State, Myanmar (2020)
Journal Article
Meehan, P. (2021). Precarity, poverty and poppy: Encountering development in the uplands of Shan State, Myanmar. International Journal of Drug Policy, 89, Article 103064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103064

In recent years there have been growing calls for “development-oriented drug policies” to tackle illicit drug cultivation in the global South. Calls to integrate drugs and development have been important in demonstrating the damage caused by the war... Read More about Precarity, poverty and poppy: Encountering development in the uplands of Shan State, Myanmar.

Myanmar’s Contested Borderlands: Uneven Development and Ongoing Armed Conflict (2020)
Book Chapter
Lertchavalitsakul, B., & Meehan, P. Myanmar’s Contested Borderlands: Uneven Development and Ongoing Armed Conflict. In A. Simpson, & N. Farrelly (Eds.), Myanmar : Politics, Economy and Society. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429024443-17

Attempts to assert control over the country’s borderlands have been a central dynamic of the statebuilding agendas of successive governments in Myanmar, albeit a deeply conflictual one in light of the fact that the power and legitimacy of the state h... Read More about Myanmar’s Contested Borderlands: Uneven Development and Ongoing Armed Conflict.

Voices from the borderlands 2020: Illicit drugs, development and peacebuilding (2020)
Report
Goodhand, J., Meehan, P., Thomson, F., Ghiabi, M., & Ball, L. Voices from the borderlands 2020: Illicit drugs, development and peacebuilding

Voices from the borderlands 2020 is the flagship publication of Drugs & (dis)order, a four year research project generating new evidence on how to transform illicit drug economies into peace economies. It aims to bring to light some of the experience... Read More about Voices from the borderlands 2020: Illicit drugs, development and peacebuilding.