Sophia Htwe
Contested Vernacular Legitimacy and Substate Governance: The Arakan Army’s Political Project in Post-Coup Rakhine
Abstract
In the aftermath of Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, the Arakan Army (AA) has strengthened its position as a de facto substate authority in Rakhine State, establishing parallel governance institutions comprising judicial mechanisms, taxation regimes, and localized security structures. This paper investigates the evolving legitimacy of the AA, arguing that its authority derives not solely from coercive power or the provision of public goods, but also from historically and culturally embedded narratives of Rakhine ethno-nationalism. Grounded in critical peace and governance studies, and drawing on original fieldwork and interviews with civil society actors and community members in Rakhine, the paper examines how legitimacy is constructed, enacted, and contested within a conflict-affected and institutionally fragmented context. It critiques dominant liberal paradigms that emphasize legal-rational authority and electoral legitimacy, instead engaging with vernacular frameworks shaped by claims to precolonial sovereignty, Buddhist political imaginaries, and collective historical memory. The AA’s legitimacy is conceptualized as strategic, symbolic, relational, and instrumental, underpinned by grassroots recognition and efforts toward political consolidation.
Nevertheless, this legitimacy remains uneven and contested. The experiences of marginalized communities such as the Rohingya, Kaman, Mro, Thet, and Maramagri illustrate the limitations of the AA’s representational claims, as their inclusion is frequently partial or symbolic. These exclusions highlight the plural, dynamic, and negotiated character of legitimacy in Rakhine’s evolving political landscape. By offering an empirical, intersectional, and non-Western account of substate authority, the paper contributes to critical scholarship on legitimacy and peacebuilding. It advances new conceptual tools for understanding how legitimacy is constructed, claimed, and contested in emergent political orders shaped by protracted conflict and the fragmentation of state authority.
Biography
Sophia Htwe is a PhD candidate in Conflict and Peace Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her research critically examines the politics of peacebuilding in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, focusing on local conflict dynamics such as rebel governance, actor fragmentation, state absence, and human rights violations by multiple armed groups. She also explores broader themes including ethnonationalism, identity politics, violent extremism, radicalisation, and the localisation of peace processes in protracted conflict settings.
Grounded in a strong commitment to understanding how marginalised communities exercise agency to pursue justice, her work places particular emphasis on local agency in peace formation. She explores how communities reimagine and negotiate peace from below, challenging dominant narratives and state-centric frameworks.