近年のアジアにおいて、ミャンマーほど短期間に内政が変化した国はないでしょう。ノーベル平和賞受賞者のアウンサンスーチー氏が軟禁され、ほぼすべての人の人権が否定される、地球上で最も秘密主義的で腐敗した抑圧的な政権が存在していました。しかし、2010年11月の選挙以降、ミャンマーで起こった出来事は、社会のムードを大きく変え、ミャンマー人や、現地を良く知る外国人をも驚かせました。選挙前には悲観論が社会を覆い、多くの外国人に「見せかけ」「詐欺」と言わしめた投票にも、前向きな変化が起きていることがわかってきました。
この国から発信されるニュースを理解し、より広い文脈で捉えるには、この国の歴史、文化、内政を理解することが不可欠です。大国の中国とインドの間に位置し、地理的・戦略的にも重要なミャンマーは、地域的にも重要な存在で、1000年の歴史がありますが、西洋人にはほとんど知られていません。山岳に富み、モンスーン気候の平原が広がる美しい国でありながら、世界有数のヘロイン生産国でもあり、石油、ガス、チーク、金属、鉱物といった豊富な天然資源を有するのに貧困率が高い、という矛盾に満ちた国です。しかし、半世紀にわたる軍部による支配にもかかわらず、その多元的文化や多民族を反映した、より多元的な行政システムへと、変化が起こり始めています。歴史的な変化の渦中にあるこの国を理解する上で、不可欠な入門書です。
  

• Burma has been in the news constantly since the elections of 2011; vital elections of 2015 will ensure that it remains a point of discussion
• Aung San Suu Kyi's recent trip to the U.S. was hailed as a "global symbol of progress" and focused U.S. attention on Burma

 
It is unlikely that any country in Asia in recent years has undergone such internal policy shifts in so short a time as Myanmar. Until recently, the former British colony had one of the most secretive, corrupt, and repressive regimes on the planet, a country where Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was held in continual house arrest and human rights were denied to nearly all. Yet events in Myanmar since the elections of November 2010 have profoundly altered the internal mood of the society, and have surprised even Burmese and seasoned foreign observers of the Myanmar scene. The pessimism that pervaded the society prior to the elections, and the results of that voting that prompted many foreign observers to call them a "sham" or "fraud," gradually gave way to the realization that for reasons, variously interpreted, positive change was in the air.
 
Taking into account the dramatic changes the country has seen in the past two years-including the establishment of a human rights commission, the release of political prisoners, and reforms in health and education-David I. Steinberg offers an updated second edition of Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know. More than ever, the history, culture, and internal politics of this country are crucial to understanding the breaking headlines emerging from it today and placing them in a broader context. Geographically strategic, Burma/Myanmar lies between the growing powers of China and India, and has a thousand-year history as an important realm in the region-yet it is mostly unknown to Westerners. Burma/Myanmar is a place of contradictions: a picturesque land with mountain jungles and monsoon plains, it is one of the world's largest producers of heroin. Though it has extensive natural resources including oil, gas, teak, metals, and minerals, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. And despite a half-century of military-dominated rule, change is beginning to work its way through the beleaguered nation, as it moves to a more pluralistic administrative system reflecting its pluralistic cultural, multi-ethnic base.
 
Authoritative and balanced, Burma/Myanmar is an essential book on a country in the throes of historic change.