Chris Sidoti: The Myanmar Crisis at a Nadir of Human Rights

Chris Sidoti unpacks Myanmar’s war through the lenses of battlefield dynamics, China’s shifting calculations, and the enduring vulnerability of the Rohingya. He argues that China’s recent tilt back toward the junta reflects a short-term stabilisation strategy driven by security and economic interests, but one that will likely prove mistaken as the military’s defeat becomes unavoidable. Against a backdrop of weak and fragmented international action—and an America retreating from human rights leadership—Sidoti contends that regional actors, particularly Australia, must step up. While the global human rights project is at a low ebb amid a return to great-power spheres of influence, he remains convinced that human rights will ultimately re-emerge, because they remain a core aspiration of ordinary people, including those suffering through Myanmar’s conflict.

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