The Best of 2025: Our Audiences’ Top Picks

Photo – AFP

▪️ Editor’s Note

The year 2025 has come to a close. Over the past twelve months, Myanmar has continued to endure the long shadow of war following the military coup, while also confronting the devastation of the Sagaing–Mandalay earthquake. Compounded by conflict-driven socioeconomic crises, daily life for many has become a constant struggle. For most, the focus has simply been on getting through each day. Yet sustaining public resilience requires more than physical endurance alone; it also depends on mental strength and shared understanding.

In this context, careful analysis and reliable data matter more than ever. This ISP Audiences’ Top Picks brings together the research and analysis published by ISP-Myanmar in 2025 that resonated most with our readers. Over the year, we produced 571 research-based outputs and launched the ISP Column, publishing 105 columns to amplify diverse youth perspectives. Our work reached more than 44 million views and reads on a single social media platform, and was cited over 200 times by media and research organizations. This engagement is both a source of encouragement and a powerful motivation to continue serving Myanmar’s society. We are deeply grateful to our readers for your trust, engagement, and thoughtful feedback—and we warmly ask for your continued support in the year ahead.

In selecting the publications, we considered both social media  engagement and input from Gabyin members. We begin with “ISP-Myanmar in Numbers – 2025,” followed by a top ten list capturing the year through data and insight.

▪️ The Best of 2025: Our Audiences’ Top Picks

The March 28 Sagaing Earthquake:
Earthquake Diplomacy and Potential Political Aftershocks

ISP-Myanmar examined the prospect of “earthquake diplomacy” and subsequent “political aftershocks” in the wake of the March 28, 2025, Mandalay–Sagaing earthquake, focusing on the scale of the devastation, the influx of international aid, and the shifting post-disaster conflict landscape. Published on April 1—four days after the quake—this ISP On Point analysis was ISP-Myanmar’s most widely read research piece of the year.

Armed Struggle – Will It Lead to Political Resolution?

Following Operation 1027 in October 2023, the Myanmar junta suffered major reverses, while resistance forces gained an unprecedented battlefield advantage in the country’s modern history of resistance. Yet, unable to convert these gains into a decisive political turning point, the resistance soon faced a counter-offensive, as the military adopted new tactics to retake several lost towns. Against this backdrop, ISP-Myanmar examined the crucial challenge of turning military gains into political outcomes. The concept note on this theme became the most-read publication, and the corresponding 30 Minutes with the ISP episode was the most-watched program of the year.

“O… Northern Road …” 
Myanmar’s Conflict Resolution that Needs Guardrails and the Future Prospects

Under the theme “O… Northern Road …” ISP-Myanmar published a trilogy of On Points, addressing the need for guardrails in resolving Myanmar’s conflict and assessing its future prospects. These articles were titled Subcontracting Sovereignty, A Much-Needed Thai Model for Myanmar’s Political Puzzle, and Rakhine: A De Facto Rival Power Center. The assessment concluded that due to diverging political objectives among Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs), it remains unlikely that the North-Eastern, South-Eastern, and Western corridors could unify to pressure and overcome Naypyitaw politically, or to envision a new nation based on these three corridors. All three of these initial assessments garnered significant audience interest.

Prospective 4^th Generation Tatmadaw  
Pathways to Reform or Further Regression?

During the ten months of Operation 1027, the Myanmar junta faced a near-collapse situation. However, it navigated this crisis by weaponizing its perceived weakness: the notion that if the center collapsed, the country would follow. Consequently, ISP-Myanmar assessed that the regime is no longer on the brink of imminent collapse. While it may not regain all lost territories in the short term, it can sustain its rule through various means. Furthermore, given the resistance’s inability to offer a viable alternative, ISP-Myanmar highlighted the critical need to rigorously study the ongoing “4^th Generation Tatmadaw” transition within the regime. This publication garnered high readership and citations.

95 Civilian Massacres Recorded Since the Coup

ISP-Myanmar has tracked and documented incidents of mass civilian killings during the conflict, defined as events in which ten or more people are killed—most often by the regime’s shelling, arson, or airstrikes. Civilians in resistance-held areas and zones of high military tension face the greatest risk. As religious buildings, hospitals, schools, and homes are all being targeted, the capacity to protect civilians has reached a critical low.

Myanmar’s Rare Earths: Cries Behind Critical Minerals

Following the coup, rare-earth mining in Kachin State has expanded rapidly, with Chinese companies playing a central role. China’s “earthquake diplomacy” after the Mandalay–Sagaing quake—swift humanitarian aid and visible disaster relief—stood in sharp contrast to its conduct in the mining sector. Here, unregulated extraction has brought little economic benefit to local communities, while leaving them to bear the environmental and health costs. This 30 Minutes with the ISP episode explored why China should apply the same standards of responsibility and accountability to resource extraction as it projects in its disaster relief efforts. The discussion drew strong interest from ISP-Myanmar’s audiences.

Saving the Consensus 
The Future of Multilateral Action on Myanmar

ISP-Myanmar introduced new formats for presenting its research in 2025, including the launch of Policy Briefs. One such brief was published four days before the ASEAN Summit in October 2025. Focusing on the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus (5PC) on Myanmar, it set out the core policy problem, background context, the differing approaches of successive ASEAN chairs and the range of available options. ISP-Myanmar argued that, in the absence of a viable alternative framework, the Consensus should continue to be upheld and used as a basis for engagement.

Education Access in Crisis 
Nearly 7 Million Children Out of School

ISP-Myanmar conducted research on socioeconomic conditions after 

the 2021 coup and published a Situation Brief on the loss of access to basic education. Using data from the 2019 Interim Census and reports by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the study found that 53 percent of school-age children are now out of school. ISP-Myanmar assessed that this sharp decline in enrolment is driven primarily by post-coup economic hardship and worsening insecurity.

Myanmar’s Key Stakeholders and their Perceptions of Sino-Myanmar Relations – A Survey (2024)

ISP-Myanmar has conducted its survey Myanmar’s Key Stakeholders and their Perceptions of Sino-Myanmar Relations since 2022, with the 2024 edition marking the third round. The survey comprises 92 questions across eight sectors, covering issues such as China’s role in Myanmar’s crisis, the peace process and economic-corridor projects. A key addition in the latest round was a set of questions on how stakeholders view China’s stance and policies on conflict resolution in Myanmar. The findings attracted strong interest among Gabyin members and generated a high level of engagement with ISP-Myanmar’s email engagement.

Raising the Lantern’s Wick High 
A Survey of Myanmar’s Socioeconomic Crisis and Public Resilience

ISP-Myanmar has been researching socioeconomic conditions following the coup. To assess conflict-driven trade route blockages and their impact on the public, a survey was conducted during the last week of September 2025 and was published in November 2025. The survey comprised 18 questions addressing the status of commodity shortages, their impacts, and coping mechanisms, generating significant interest among the Gabyin community members. Based on these findings, the 30 Minutes with the ISP episode titled The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak: The Socioeconomic Cost of Myanmar’s Disrupted Trade Routes also received high viewership.