WHA Annual Meeting: Korea 2026

The post-globalization era is increasingly characterized by hardened borders, geopolitical fragmentation, and the retreat of liberal internationalism. Myanmar offers a compelling case through which to examine this paradox. Following the 2021 military coup, the country faced intensified political isolation, international sanctions, border securitization, and diplomatic marginalization. Yet this paper argues that, despite conditions of apparent closure, Myanmar has remained deeply embedded in regional and global networks, revealing the persistence of global connections beyond formal globalization. Adopting a world history and global history perspective, the study analyzes Myanmar as a site where coercive state authority and transnational connectivity coexist. It demonstrates how trade flows, illicit and informal economies, cross-border labor migration, digital communication, resource extraction—including rare earth minerals—and regional supply chains continue to link Myanmar to South Asia, Southeast Asia, and global markets. These connections increasingly operate through non-liberal, asymmetric, and securitized channels rather than through open borders or multilateral frameworks. Placing contemporary Myanmar within a longer historical trajectory, the paper compares the current moment with earlier periods of restricted mobility and political closure, including colonial border regimes, Cold War alignments, and post-independence authoritarian governance. This comparison shows that Myanmar has historically been “globally connected without being globally integrated,” challenging linear narratives of globalization followed by deglobalization.The paper advances the concept of “coerced globality,” in which global connections persist through violence, informality, and geopolitical necessity rather than through voluntary integration. Myanmar’s experience demonstrates that closed borders do not eliminate global interdependence; instead, they transform its forms, actors, and power hierarchies. By foregrounding Myanmar, this study contributes to debates in world history about how globality survives and mutates under authoritarianism, sanctions, and border closures in the twenty-first century.