Liberal Dreams, Illiberal Ends

Insight Myanmar · Jan 23, 2026 · 1h 51m

Episode #473: “The military was pursuing an illiberal strategy to peace, and Norway became complicit, not necessarily by design, but by its effect, it became a de facto sponsor of a strategy for illiberal peace building by the military.”

Kristian Stokke draws on decades of research across Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Indonesia, where Norway’s peace efforts often reinforced state dominance rather than confronting inequality. He argues that Myanmar followed the same trajectory.

“Norway became the envoy of the West that went in to test the waters,” he recalls, acting as a diplomatic go-between…