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Morten Pedersen

Morten Pedersen
Research Fellow

Project :
Building Democracy & Justice After Conflict

Contact details:
Email: morten.pedersen@anu.edu.au

Short biography
Current research
Selected publications
RegNet profile

Short biography

Morten B. Pedersen joined the Centre in late 2008 from the United Nations University, Peace and Governance Programme, Tokyo. He previously worked as senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Burma/Myanmar and consultant on Burmese politics and development affairs with the UN, the World Bank and the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. He has a PhD in Politics and International Relations from ANU and a MA in Southeast Asian Studies from University of Hull, UK.

Current research

Morten's research focuses on the interface between international statecraft and domestic social, political and economic change. He is currently working on two mutually reinforcing book projects:

Principled Engagement: Promoting Human Rights by Engaging Abusive Regimes

This joint project between United Nations University, Sydney University and Australian National University is co-directed by Morten and David Kinley, Professor in Human Rights Law, Sydney Law School, and will involve a dozen leading scholars and practioners from around the world. Intended to address an important gap in the academic literature on international statecraft, as well as to provide concrete lessons and recommendations for policy makers, it will develop a theoretical model of principled engagement and undertake a series of case studies to elucidate how it works in practice.

Burma/Myanmar: Lessons of International Engagement 1988-2008

Departing from a critical assessment of the use of sanctions to promote democracy and human rights in Burma/Myanmar, this project aims to explore the scope for an alternative policy of engagement by examining a series of projects undertaken by the UN, governments, NGOs and private corporations in the country over the past twenty years. It is intended as the first in a series of detailed case studies of such engagement in countries on the margins of the global political and economic system, which hopefully will help to inform and improve future international efforts to promote human rights in these most difficult cases.

Selected publications

Books

Morten B. Pedersen, Promoting Human Rights in Burma: A Critique of Western Sanctions Policy (Denver: Rowman&Littlefield, 2007).

Morten B. Pedersen, Emily Rudland & Ron J. May (eds), Burma/Myanmar: Strong Regime, Weak State (Adelaide: Crawford House, 2000).

Articles and book chapters

Morten B. Pedersen, “Burma’s Ethnic Minorities: Charting Their Own Way to Peace”, Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 40, No. 1 (March 2008).

Morten B. Pedersen, “Myanmar in 2006: The Future Takes Form (But Little Change in Sight)”, Southeast Asian Affairs, 2007.

Morten B. Pedersen, “A Comprehensive International Approach to Political and Economic Development in Burma/Myanmar”, in Trevor Wilson (ed.), The Long Way to National Reconciliation in Burma (Singapore: ISEAS, 2006).

Morten B. Pedersen, “The Challenges of Transition in Myanmar”, in Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Tin Maung Maung Than and Robert H. Taylor (eds), Myanmar: Beyond Politics to Social Imperatives (Singapore: ISEAS, 2005).

Morten B. Pedersen, “International Policy on Burma: Coercion, Persuasion, or Cooperation? Assessing the Claims” in Morten B. Pedersen, Emily Rudland & Ron J. May (eds), Burma/Myanmar: Strong Regime, Weak State (Adelaide: Crawford House, 2000).

Policy reports

Morten B. Pedersen and Timo Kivimäki. Burma: Mapping the Challenges and Opportunities for Dialogue and Reconciliation. Report prepared for the European Commission on behalf of the Crisis Management Initiative, Martti Ahtisaari Rapid Reaction Facility, April 2008.

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