Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Road to Naypyitaw: Making Sense of the Myanmar Government's Decision to Move its Capital

2006; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.1317156

1556-5068

Maung Aung Myoe,

Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography

In November 2005, the Myanmar government announced its decision to relocate the national capital from Yangon to a place near Pyinmana; the place was later named Naypyitaw. This decision reveals several aspects of the Myanmar government's security thinking. Concern for information security, defence-in-depth against possible foreign invasion, desire to get rid of the colonial past, isolating civil servants from the general public, gaining a sense of control in state-building, and the influence of traditional world views and are some plausible explanations for the relocation.