Kevin M Woods | East-West Center (original) (raw)

Papers by Kevin M Woods

World Development

This paper contributes to new understandings of agrarian transition for smallholder rice farming ... more This paper contributes to new understandings of agrarian transition for smallholder rice farming in Southeast Asia through quantitative data analysis from Thailand's two main rice growing regions. Despite economic modernization models predicting a farm-size transition of smallholder agriculture to large-scale commercial farms with the onset of industrialization and urban employment opportunities, we find rice farmers continue to persist and defy anticipated trends, but not uniformly. We conducted a comprehensive survey in 2019 with rice farming households in twelve provinces in Thailand's Central Plains and the Northeast on how a host of dynamic farming variables have changed from 2000 to 2019. Rather than the concentration of smallholder rice farms into large commercial farms, we find that the size of smallholder rice farms has remained remarkably consistent across study sites. Our comparative data analysis advances an interrelated set of key explanatory variables that go beyond land size to explicate the variegated nature of agrarian transition: access to resources, household farm labor, farm inputs, agrarian finance, and government support. Our study demonstrates the need for taking into consideration (sub-)regional specificity of material conditions and multi-scaled forces, as well as geographical proximity to advantageous factors, in shaping variegated trajectories of agrarian transition. Smallholder rice farmers and rice production is not about to significantly decline in either region of Thailand nor the rest of Southeast Asia, at least for the next several decades, but will increasingly be defined by changing demographics, growing environmental and climatic challenges, and consolidating global rice production supply chains.

Territory, Politics, Governance, 2018

China's contemporary cross-border investments in northern Myanmar have been confronted by, and in... more China's contemporary cross-border investments in northern Myanmar have been confronted by, and in turn have re-animated, the region's post-Cold War geographies and associated illicit drug economy. Since the mid-2000s, mainland Chinese companies have invested in large-scale agribusiness concessions in northern Myanmar under China's liberalized opium substitution programme. Chinese companies have partnered with local armed 'strongmen'many of whom were or still are involved in the illicit drug tradewhere they exercise armed authority within a wider landscape of 'armed sovereignties'. Field case study data demonstrate how China's contemporary cross-border investments have extended Myanmar's national political authority within the arc of armed sovereignties. Chinese-backed agricultural estates, whether awarded to paramilitary militias or rebel leaders under ceasefires, acted as state territorial interventions and led to incremental Myanmar state-building outcomes. The state-building effects from contemporary Chinese investments are in contrast to the Cold War period in which China sought to destabilize nonaligned nation-states by supporting armed communist revolutions. The study traces how China's current land-based investments have reawakened the borderland's legacy of political violence and reconfigured armed sovereignties closer towards Myanmar's military state.

Chinese Circulations, 2011

Human Ecology, 2019

I explore how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under... more I explore how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under rebel authority can serve to assert state control over resource-rich territories and populations. I advance the concept of Bgreen territoriality^to describe how conservation practiced beyond the state can serve counterinsurgency aims based on a two-year field case study in a global biodiversity hotspot under armed conflict and inhabited by Karen in southeastern Myanmar. I analyze military-led forced displacements by economic concessions and conservation during war alongside more recent conservation projects during the ceasefire. My findings reveal how military offensives, economic concessions, and conservation activities threaten to bring state agencies, administration, and management into rebel forests where Karen fled from war but have not yet returned. These findings highlight the importance of integrating conservation activities in conflict affected areas with humanitarian assistance, land restitution, and livelihood rehabilitation.

World Development, 2020

Abstract This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State... more Abstract This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State, northern Myanmar, and its spatially uneven dispossessory effects. Local research teams studied eight villages, four in the north and an equal number in the south of Shan State, using focus group discussions and randomized household interviews, supplemented with key informant interviews. This study deepens the global land grab debate by highlighting the role of smallholder cash crop booms in “smaller-scale” land grabs that have been shown to be significant drivers of agrarian transformation, especially in Southeast Asia. The article builds on the conceptualization of “accumulation from below” by accounting for the geographically differentiated processes of dispossession from smallholder contract farming arrangements, its variant forms of coercion and consent, and the political contingencies that give rise to and help explain uneven agrarian change. The study’s findings demonstrate how political contingency shapes spatial patterns of accumulation and dispossession through regional and local variations in the politics of ethnic identity, migration, insurgency and an illicit drugs economy. These political dynamics inform the hierarchy of power and cultural familiarity between smallholders and local state-supported “silent strongmen”, in this case town moneylenders and village elites, which—together with several other identified factors, especially the poppy economy—influence the spatial distribution of dispossession. Neither extra-economic coercion within orbits of state power nor simply accumulation from below by market opportunities adequately explains uneven agrarian transformation. Instead, the analytical frame on forms of violence in capital accumulation should be expanded and deepened in order to better capture the complex coming together of violence, coercion and consent that is geographically specific, and taken together is more than the sum of their parts.

Remote Sensing

Armed conflict and geopolitics are a driving force of Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC), but... more Armed conflict and geopolitics are a driving force of Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC), but with considerable variation in deforestation trends between broader and finer scales of analysis. Remotely-sensed annual deforestation rates from 1989 to 2018 are presented at the national and (sub-) regional scales for Kachin State in the north of Myanmar and in Kayin State and Tanintharyi Region in the southeast. We pair our multiscaled remote sensing analysis with our multisited political ecology approach where we conducted field-based interviews in study sites between 2018 and 2020. Our integrated analysis identified three common periods of deforestation spikes at the national and state/region level, but with some notable disparities between regions as well as across and within townships and village tracts. We found the rate and geography of deforestation were most influenced by the territorial jurisdictions of armed authorities, national political economic reforms and timber regula...

Geoforum, 2021

1 I use "rebel" and "insurgent" interchangeably to refer to armed political opposition groups fig... more 1 I use "rebel" and "insurgent" interchangeably to refer to armed political opposition groups fighting against the state, without the loaded political meaning more closely associated to "terrorist" that a Myanmar speaker often attributes. 2 Despite the state-designated ethnic nationality name "Kayin" being consistent with my use of "Myanmar" and "Tanintharyi", here I instead use "Karen" as this is the English nomenclature that my Karen informants prefer.

Sustainability

Regime shifts—rapid long-term transitions between stable states—are well documented in ecology bu... more Regime shifts—rapid long-term transitions between stable states—are well documented in ecology but remain controversial and understudied in land use and land cover change (LUCC). In particular, uncertainty surrounds the prevalence and causes of regime shifts at the landscape level. We studied LUCC dynamics in the Tanintharyi Region (Myanmar), which contains one of the last remaining significant contiguous forest areas in Southeast Asia but was heavily deforested between 1992–2015. By combining remote sensing methods and a literature review of historical processes leading to LUCC, we identified a regime shift from a forest-oriented state to an agricultural-oriented state between 1997–2004. The regime shift was triggered by a confluence of complex political and economic conditions within Myanmar, notably the ceasefires between various ethnic groups and the military government, coupled with its enhanced business relations with Thailand and China. Government policies and foreign direct ...

Political Geography, 2020

We demonstrate how international conservation practices in a rebel forest during ceasefire are sh... more We demonstrate how international conservation practices in a rebel forest during ceasefire are shaped by and contribute to legacies of racialized political violence. Nature conservation has been shown in some cases to be implemented by armed forces and directly contribute to acts of "green violence" and the makings of "green war". Less explored in the critical conservation literature, and the focus of our study, are the ways in which conservation projects can also be implicated in the continuation of counterinsurgency through "softer" non-militarized means. Based on ethnographic field research, interviews, and document analysis conducted by both authors, we present a field case study from the lowland forests of Tanintharyi Region in southeast Myanmar. The proposed Lenya National Park falls within territory contested by an ethnic Karen rebel group, who have been under a tenuous ceasefire since 2012 but who have not yet reached a political settlement to end armed conflict. We find that the mapping of Lenya during ceasefire by foreign conservationists legitimizes past forced displacements of Karen civilians by the Myanmar military during decades of war, and impedes the potential return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their customary lands now zoned for the park. Conservationists working to establish the park invoke and build upon racialized discourses of Karen forest dwellers as criminals, first as dangerous rebel supporters, and now as forest destroyers. The ceasefire has also opened up political space for Karen leaders to challenge the making of state forests, who envision an alternative model of community-led conservation based on indigenous rights.

United States Institute of Peace, 2018

This report examines Burma's conflict resource economy in the areas along its borders with China ... more This report examines Burma's conflict resource economy in the areas along its borders with China and Thailand, focusing on the relationships between extractive and productive resources, armed conflict, and the peace process. Data and analysis are based on the author's previously conducted interviews, focus group discussions, workshops, and research, complemented by an extensive literature review. The report is supported by the Asia Center at USIP.

World Development, 2020

This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State, norther... more This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State, northern Myanmar, and its spatially uneven dispossessory effects. Local research teams studied eight villages, four in the north and an equal number in the south of Shan State, using focus group discussions and random- ized household interviews, supplemented with key informant interviews. This study deepens the global land grab debate by highlighting the role of smallholder cash crop booms in ‘‘smaller-scale” land grabs that have been shown to be significant drivers of agrarian transformation, especially in Southeast Asia. The article builds on the conceptualization of ‘‘accumulation from below” by accounting for the geo- graphically differentiated processes of dispossession from smallholder contract farming arrangements, its variant forms of coercion and consent, and the political contingencies that give rise to and help explain uneven agrarian change. The study’s findings demonstrate how political contingency shapes spatial pat- terns of accumulation and dispossession through regional and local variations in the politics of ethnic identity, migration, insurgency and an illicit drugs economy. These political dynamics inform the hierar- chy of power and cultural familiarity between smallholders and local state-supported ‘‘silent strongmen”, in this case town moneylenders and village elites, which—together with several other identified factors, especially the poppy economy—influence the spatial distribution of dispossession. Neither extra- economic coercion within orbits of state power nor simply accumulation from below by market oppor- tunities adequately explains uneven agrarian transformation. Instead, the analytical frame on forms of violence in capital accumulation should be expanded and deepened in order to better capture the com- plex coming together of violence, coercion and consent that is geographically specific, and taken together is more than the sum of their parts.

Human Ecology, 2019

This article explores how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest fro... more This article explores how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under rebel authority can serve to assert state control over resource-rich territories and populations. I advance the concept of “green territoriality” to describe how conservation practiced beyond the state can serve counterinsurgency aims. Evidence is presented based on a two-year field case study located in a global biodiversity hotspot under armed conflict and inhabited by Karen in southeastern Myanmar. Military-led forced displacements by economic concessions and conservation during war are analyzed alongside more recent conservation projects during the ceasefire. Findings reveal how military offensives, economic concessions, and conservation activities threaten to bring state agencies, administration, and management into rebel forests where Karen fled from war but have not yet returned. The findings hold particular significance to the importance of integrating conservation activities in conflict affected areas with humanitarian assistance, land restitution, and livelihood rehabilitation.

Since ceasefire agreements were signed between the Burmese military government and ethnic politic... more Since ceasefire agreements were signed between the Burmese military government and ethnic political groups in the Burma–China borderlands in the early 1990s, violent waves of counterinsurgency development have replaced warfare to target politically-suspect, resource-rich, ethnic populated borderlands. The Burmese regime allocates land concessions in ceasefire zones as an explicit postwar military strategy to govern land and populations to produce regulated, legible, militarized territory. Tracing the relationship of military–state formation, land control and securitization, and primitive accumulation in the Burma–China borderlands uncovers the forces of what I am calling ‘ceasefire capitalism’. This study examines these processes of Burmese military–state building over the past decade in resource-rich ethnic ceasefire zones along the Yunnan, China border. I will illustrate this contemporary and violent military–state formation process with two case studies focusing on northern Burma: logging and redirected timber trade flows, and Chinese rubber plantations as part of China’s opium substitution program.

World Development

This paper contributes to new understandings of agrarian transition for smallholder rice farming ... more This paper contributes to new understandings of agrarian transition for smallholder rice farming in Southeast Asia through quantitative data analysis from Thailand's two main rice growing regions. Despite economic modernization models predicting a farm-size transition of smallholder agriculture to large-scale commercial farms with the onset of industrialization and urban employment opportunities, we find rice farmers continue to persist and defy anticipated trends, but not uniformly. We conducted a comprehensive survey in 2019 with rice farming households in twelve provinces in Thailand's Central Plains and the Northeast on how a host of dynamic farming variables have changed from 2000 to 2019. Rather than the concentration of smallholder rice farms into large commercial farms, we find that the size of smallholder rice farms has remained remarkably consistent across study sites. Our comparative data analysis advances an interrelated set of key explanatory variables that go beyond land size to explicate the variegated nature of agrarian transition: access to resources, household farm labor, farm inputs, agrarian finance, and government support. Our study demonstrates the need for taking into consideration (sub-)regional specificity of material conditions and multi-scaled forces, as well as geographical proximity to advantageous factors, in shaping variegated trajectories of agrarian transition. Smallholder rice farmers and rice production is not about to significantly decline in either region of Thailand nor the rest of Southeast Asia, at least for the next several decades, but will increasingly be defined by changing demographics, growing environmental and climatic challenges, and consolidating global rice production supply chains.

Territory, Politics, Governance, 2018

China's contemporary cross-border investments in northern Myanmar have been confronted by, and in... more China's contemporary cross-border investments in northern Myanmar have been confronted by, and in turn have re-animated, the region's post-Cold War geographies and associated illicit drug economy. Since the mid-2000s, mainland Chinese companies have invested in large-scale agribusiness concessions in northern Myanmar under China's liberalized opium substitution programme. Chinese companies have partnered with local armed 'strongmen'many of whom were or still are involved in the illicit drug tradewhere they exercise armed authority within a wider landscape of 'armed sovereignties'. Field case study data demonstrate how China's contemporary cross-border investments have extended Myanmar's national political authority within the arc of armed sovereignties. Chinese-backed agricultural estates, whether awarded to paramilitary militias or rebel leaders under ceasefires, acted as state territorial interventions and led to incremental Myanmar state-building outcomes. The state-building effects from contemporary Chinese investments are in contrast to the Cold War period in which China sought to destabilize nonaligned nation-states by supporting armed communist revolutions. The study traces how China's current land-based investments have reawakened the borderland's legacy of political violence and reconfigured armed sovereignties closer towards Myanmar's military state.

Chinese Circulations, 2011

Human Ecology, 2019

I explore how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under... more I explore how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under rebel authority can serve to assert state control over resource-rich territories and populations. I advance the concept of Bgreen territoriality^to describe how conservation practiced beyond the state can serve counterinsurgency aims based on a two-year field case study in a global biodiversity hotspot under armed conflict and inhabited by Karen in southeastern Myanmar. I analyze military-led forced displacements by economic concessions and conservation during war alongside more recent conservation projects during the ceasefire. My findings reveal how military offensives, economic concessions, and conservation activities threaten to bring state agencies, administration, and management into rebel forests where Karen fled from war but have not yet returned. These findings highlight the importance of integrating conservation activities in conflict affected areas with humanitarian assistance, land restitution, and livelihood rehabilitation.

World Development, 2020

Abstract This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State... more Abstract This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State, northern Myanmar, and its spatially uneven dispossessory effects. Local research teams studied eight villages, four in the north and an equal number in the south of Shan State, using focus group discussions and randomized household interviews, supplemented with key informant interviews. This study deepens the global land grab debate by highlighting the role of smallholder cash crop booms in “smaller-scale” land grabs that have been shown to be significant drivers of agrarian transformation, especially in Southeast Asia. The article builds on the conceptualization of “accumulation from below” by accounting for the geographically differentiated processes of dispossession from smallholder contract farming arrangements, its variant forms of coercion and consent, and the political contingencies that give rise to and help explain uneven agrarian change. The study’s findings demonstrate how political contingency shapes spatial patterns of accumulation and dispossession through regional and local variations in the politics of ethnic identity, migration, insurgency and an illicit drugs economy. These political dynamics inform the hierarchy of power and cultural familiarity between smallholders and local state-supported “silent strongmen”, in this case town moneylenders and village elites, which—together with several other identified factors, especially the poppy economy—influence the spatial distribution of dispossession. Neither extra-economic coercion within orbits of state power nor simply accumulation from below by market opportunities adequately explains uneven agrarian transformation. Instead, the analytical frame on forms of violence in capital accumulation should be expanded and deepened in order to better capture the complex coming together of violence, coercion and consent that is geographically specific, and taken together is more than the sum of their parts.

Remote Sensing

Armed conflict and geopolitics are a driving force of Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC), but... more Armed conflict and geopolitics are a driving force of Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC), but with considerable variation in deforestation trends between broader and finer scales of analysis. Remotely-sensed annual deforestation rates from 1989 to 2018 are presented at the national and (sub-) regional scales for Kachin State in the north of Myanmar and in Kayin State and Tanintharyi Region in the southeast. We pair our multiscaled remote sensing analysis with our multisited political ecology approach where we conducted field-based interviews in study sites between 2018 and 2020. Our integrated analysis identified three common periods of deforestation spikes at the national and state/region level, but with some notable disparities between regions as well as across and within townships and village tracts. We found the rate and geography of deforestation were most influenced by the territorial jurisdictions of armed authorities, national political economic reforms and timber regula...

Geoforum, 2021

1 I use "rebel" and "insurgent" interchangeably to refer to armed political opposition groups fig... more 1 I use "rebel" and "insurgent" interchangeably to refer to armed political opposition groups fighting against the state, without the loaded political meaning more closely associated to "terrorist" that a Myanmar speaker often attributes. 2 Despite the state-designated ethnic nationality name "Kayin" being consistent with my use of "Myanmar" and "Tanintharyi", here I instead use "Karen" as this is the English nomenclature that my Karen informants prefer.

Sustainability

Regime shifts—rapid long-term transitions between stable states—are well documented in ecology bu... more Regime shifts—rapid long-term transitions between stable states—are well documented in ecology but remain controversial and understudied in land use and land cover change (LUCC). In particular, uncertainty surrounds the prevalence and causes of regime shifts at the landscape level. We studied LUCC dynamics in the Tanintharyi Region (Myanmar), which contains one of the last remaining significant contiguous forest areas in Southeast Asia but was heavily deforested between 1992–2015. By combining remote sensing methods and a literature review of historical processes leading to LUCC, we identified a regime shift from a forest-oriented state to an agricultural-oriented state between 1997–2004. The regime shift was triggered by a confluence of complex political and economic conditions within Myanmar, notably the ceasefires between various ethnic groups and the military government, coupled with its enhanced business relations with Thailand and China. Government policies and foreign direct ...

Political Geography, 2020

We demonstrate how international conservation practices in a rebel forest during ceasefire are sh... more We demonstrate how international conservation practices in a rebel forest during ceasefire are shaped by and contribute to legacies of racialized political violence. Nature conservation has been shown in some cases to be implemented by armed forces and directly contribute to acts of "green violence" and the makings of "green war". Less explored in the critical conservation literature, and the focus of our study, are the ways in which conservation projects can also be implicated in the continuation of counterinsurgency through "softer" non-militarized means. Based on ethnographic field research, interviews, and document analysis conducted by both authors, we present a field case study from the lowland forests of Tanintharyi Region in southeast Myanmar. The proposed Lenya National Park falls within territory contested by an ethnic Karen rebel group, who have been under a tenuous ceasefire since 2012 but who have not yet reached a political settlement to end armed conflict. We find that the mapping of Lenya during ceasefire by foreign conservationists legitimizes past forced displacements of Karen civilians by the Myanmar military during decades of war, and impedes the potential return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their customary lands now zoned for the park. Conservationists working to establish the park invoke and build upon racialized discourses of Karen forest dwellers as criminals, first as dangerous rebel supporters, and now as forest destroyers. The ceasefire has also opened up political space for Karen leaders to challenge the making of state forests, who envision an alternative model of community-led conservation based on indigenous rights.

United States Institute of Peace, 2018

This report examines Burma's conflict resource economy in the areas along its borders with China ... more This report examines Burma's conflict resource economy in the areas along its borders with China and Thailand, focusing on the relationships between extractive and productive resources, armed conflict, and the peace process. Data and analysis are based on the author's previously conducted interviews, focus group discussions, workshops, and research, complemented by an extensive literature review. The report is supported by the Asia Center at USIP.

World Development, 2020

This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State, norther... more This article presents field research data on a smallholder maize crop boom in Shan State, northern Myanmar, and its spatially uneven dispossessory effects. Local research teams studied eight villages, four in the north and an equal number in the south of Shan State, using focus group discussions and random- ized household interviews, supplemented with key informant interviews. This study deepens the global land grab debate by highlighting the role of smallholder cash crop booms in ‘‘smaller-scale” land grabs that have been shown to be significant drivers of agrarian transformation, especially in Southeast Asia. The article builds on the conceptualization of ‘‘accumulation from below” by accounting for the geo- graphically differentiated processes of dispossession from smallholder contract farming arrangements, its variant forms of coercion and consent, and the political contingencies that give rise to and help explain uneven agrarian change. The study’s findings demonstrate how political contingency shapes spatial pat- terns of accumulation and dispossession through regional and local variations in the politics of ethnic identity, migration, insurgency and an illicit drugs economy. These political dynamics inform the hierar- chy of power and cultural familiarity between smallholders and local state-supported ‘‘silent strongmen”, in this case town moneylenders and village elites, which—together with several other identified factors, especially the poppy economy—influence the spatial distribution of dispossession. Neither extra- economic coercion within orbits of state power nor simply accumulation from below by market oppor- tunities adequately explains uneven agrarian transformation. Instead, the analytical frame on forms of violence in capital accumulation should be expanded and deepened in order to better capture the com- plex coming together of violence, coercion and consent that is geographically specific, and taken together is more than the sum of their parts.

Human Ecology, 2019

This article explores how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest fro... more This article explores how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under rebel authority can serve to assert state control over resource-rich territories and populations. I advance the concept of “green territoriality” to describe how conservation practiced beyond the state can serve counterinsurgency aims. Evidence is presented based on a two-year field case study located in a global biodiversity hotspot under armed conflict and inhabited by Karen in southeastern Myanmar. Military-led forced displacements by economic concessions and conservation during war are analyzed alongside more recent conservation projects during the ceasefire. Findings reveal how military offensives, economic concessions, and conservation activities threaten to bring state agencies, administration, and management into rebel forests where Karen fled from war but have not yet returned. The findings hold particular significance to the importance of integrating conservation activities in conflict affected areas with humanitarian assistance, land restitution, and livelihood rehabilitation.

Since ceasefire agreements were signed between the Burmese military government and ethnic politic... more Since ceasefire agreements were signed between the Burmese military government and ethnic political groups in the Burma–China borderlands in the early 1990s, violent waves of counterinsurgency development have replaced warfare to target politically-suspect, resource-rich, ethnic populated borderlands. The Burmese regime allocates land concessions in ceasefire zones as an explicit postwar military strategy to govern land and populations to produce regulated, legible, militarized territory. Tracing the relationship of military–state formation, land control and securitization, and primitive accumulation in the Burma–China borderlands uncovers the forces of what I am calling ‘ceasefire capitalism’. This study examines these processes of Burmese military–state building over the past decade in resource-rich ethnic ceasefire zones along the Yunnan, China border. I will illustrate this contemporary and violent military–state formation process with two case studies focusing on northern Burma: logging and redirected timber trade flows, and Chinese rubber plantations as part of China’s opium substitution program.

Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region, 2022