{"product_id":"stalemate-autonomy-and-insurgency-on-the-china-myanmar-border-9781501770715","title":"Stalemate: Autonomy and Insurgency on the China-Myanmar Border","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStalemate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e reveals the history and contemporary politics of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Asia's strongest insurgent army on Myanmar's border with China.\u003c\/b\u003e This ethnographic tale recounts how a highland group, often dismissed as rebels or narcotraffickers, maintains a relational autonomy between two powerful lowland states. The Wa polity engages rather than evades these surrounding states, yet struggles to fit into their registers of sovereignty and statehood. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAndrew Ong examines political culture among Wa elites and people, UWSA external relations, and capital flows with neighboring China, showing how Wa autonomy is enacted through careful navigation of complex borderland geopolitics and the shadow economy. He analyzes the seeming stalemate between the Myanmar state and the UWSA as one of tactical dissonance--adopting simultaneous postures of authority and subordination and creating disruptions and connections. \u003ci\u003eStalemate\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates how seemingly ambiguous and disorderly practices of political signaling, economic regulation, and military governance produce relative stability, challenging our assumptions about state-like processes at the peripheries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAndrew Ong is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50497685750034,"sku":"9781501770715","price":36.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d4450060-eaf3-46f3-bf30-e97ca9834a3c.jpg?v=1730717040","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/stalemate-autonomy-and-insurgency-on-the-china-myanmar-border-9781501770715","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}