AuthorMin Zin

Min Zin is a founding member and the executive director of the Institute for Strategy and Policy - Myanmar, which is an independent, non-partisan, and non-governmental think tank, which promotes democratic leadership and strengthen civic participation in Myanmar. He is a PhD candidate in Travers Department of Political Science at University of California, Berkeley. Min Zin is a comparative political scientist who studies civil-military relations, democratization, contentious politics, ethnic conflicts and civil war with a focus on Myanmar and Southeast Asian countries. Min Zin’s writings appear in Journal of Democracy, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, Social Research: An International Quarterly, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Georgetown Journal of International Affair and many edited books. He serves as country analyst of Myanmar for several research foundations including Freedom House, and he is also a fellow of Legatum Institute. Min Zin took part in Burma’s democracy movement in 1988 as a high school student activist, and went into hiding in 1989 to avoid arrest by the junta. His underground activist-cum-writer life lasted for nine years until he fled to the Thai-Myanmar border in August 1997. Min Zin writes for The Foreign Policy Magazine, The New York Times, and other media outlets.