A new event will take place at Tallinn University this Friday, October 6, 2023 with core team member John Buchanan.
Time: 10:30—12:00
Format: Workshop open to public
Location: M-328 (Mare building, Tallinn University)
Located on two separate continents, contemporary Burma (Myanmar) and Colombia at first cut exhibit several striking differences. The trajectories of both countries reflect interaction with localized cultural influences, political development, and agrarian traditions. Yet, both countries share several features: long- running civil wars, scores of state-allied militias, and sustained production of illicit drugs in conjunction with coercive counter-narcotics programs. Colombia is the world’s leading producer of cocaine, while Burma is the world’s second-largest exporter of illicit opium behind Afghanistan. All of these features result in massive humanitarian crises in both cases and never-ending cycles of large-scale political violence.
What lessons can trans-regional historical comparisons drawing on deep knowledge of these countries offer scholarly debates and policy concerns? This workshop brings together two researchers to engage with questions about state formation, drug crop cultivation, farmers and armed conflict. The format for the workshop includes a presentation on Colombia by Dr. José Antonio Gutiérrez followed by one on Burma by Dr. John Buchanan. The two presentations will be followed by a discussion and then a question and answer session. The event is open to the public.
Participants :
Dr. José Antonio Gutiérrez is a lecturer at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, Research Fellow affiliated with the Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University. He is co-author of States, Political Power and Criminality in Civil War (2023).
Dr. John Buchanan is a Researcher at Tallinn University Institute of Humanities and an Associate of Harvard University’s Asia Center. He is author of Militias in Myanmar (2016).