March 30, 2019
By IPCS
By Angshuman Choudhury*
Emblem of Arakan Army. Source: Wikipedia Commons.
Over the past four months, the Arakan Army (AA)—a Rakhine Ethnic Armed Organisation (EAO)—has emerged as a formidable insurgent actor in western Myanmar, particularly Chin and Rakhine states. The AA’s insurgency is based on a mix of conventional and subversive tactics, aimed at gaining strategic dominance in the short term and political-territorial control in the medium-to-long term. Much of its future strategies and operational design will depend on its relationship with the local population and the frequency and degree of the military’s response.