毒品贸易与国家主权破碎：基于缅甸北部的政治地理学分析

与中国云南省接壤的缅甸北部少数民族自治邦,包括掸邦和克钦邦,构成全球第二大非法毒品生产地的金三角核心区。通过借助历史档案和学术文献,聚焦缅甸北部,基于政治地理的视角,理清缅甸北部毒品贸易的历史起源,探讨了自缅甸1948年独立后毒品贸易给该国带来的政治与经济危机,以及相应的地缘政治冲突和外部干预。文章试图回答的问题有：为什么毒品贸易能够在缅北扎根?毒品贸易如何影响缅甸政府在其北部山区的主权完整和领土控制?文章的核心观点是毒品成为缅甸国内破碎主权和外部势力干预的原因和结果,毒品贸易以及与毒品相关的犯罪活动已经渗入缅北,严重危害了缅甸的主权完整。毒品贸易也为外部势力介入缅甸国内事务提供了契机。由于主体民族缅族控制的中央政府同缅北的少数民族地方武装间缺乏足够的信任,民族和解缺乏基础,也无法为全面禁毒创造有利的政治条件。因而,缅北的毒品贸易和缅甸的国家建设相互影响,导致国家主权破碎化和外部干预,导致缅北成为亚洲最贫穷落后的地区。文章分析以毒品为核心的开源权力机制与非正式或者非法全球化,丰富了Agnew有关主权的理论,在实践方面有助于认识中缅边境安全的复杂性,促进云南同东南亚的跨国区域化。

Drug Economy and Fragmented Sovereignty: A Geopolitical Analysis of Northern Myanmar

Ethnic states in northern Myanmar, including the Shan and Kachin states, are adjacent to the Chinese province of Yunnan. These states constitute today’s notorious Golden Triangle. As the world’s second largest drug production area, the Golden Triangle has accommodated the production and trafficking of illicit drugs for more than 100 years. The drug economy has turned northern Myanmar into a zone of military conflicts and economic plight, raising various issues regarding how illicit drugs shape national sovereignty. Building upon archives and scholarly references, this study focuses on northern Myanmar and the origin and evolution of the drug economy in this mountainous area. Using the latest theoretical tenets in political geography, this study specifically explores how the drug economy has generated political and economic crisis since Myanmar became independent in 1948 and examines the accompanying geopolitical conflicts and external intervention. The research questions in this study are as follows: Why have illicit drugs taken root in northern Myanmar? How does the drug economy influence the Burmese state’s national sovereignty and territorial control in northern Myanmar? The study argues that illicit drugs result in and are attributed to domestic fragmented sovereignty and external intervention. Furthermore, the drug economy and drug-related crimes have already penetrated into northern Myanmar to such an extent that national sovereignty is seriously jeopardized. On the one hand, drug-related organizations fight against the Burmese Military forces to impose territorial control upon villages and towns so that they can safeguard drug plantations and trafficking. Drug money in turn consolidates these organizations’ military capacity, resulting in drug militaries in both the Shan and Kachin states. On the other hand, the Burmese military forces deployed the drug economy to entice local militias to partner in fighting against the well-organized Burmese Communist Party during the 1970s and 1980s and ethnic armed groups during the 2000s. Drugs, violent conflicts, and territorial fragmentation have combined to shape sovereignty in northern Myanmar and generate endless political crisis. In addition, the drug economy provides an opportunity for external forces to intervene in domestic affairs in Myanmar. During the last six decades, various forces from China and the United States have either relied on drugs to enfeeble the Burmese state’s efforts at territorial control in the northern highland or exercised drug control to influence social and economic development in the source areas. Because of the low degree of trust between the central state controlled by the Burman majority and military forces controlled by ethnic minority groups in the northern region, there is a lack of ethnic reconciliation and thus a benign political condition for nationwide drug control. Hence, the drug economy in northern Myanmar is intertwined with nation building, which triggers fragmented national sovereignty and external intervention. As a result, northern Myanmar has become among the poorest areas in Asia. An analysis of illicit drugs as an open-sourced architecture of power can enrich Agnew’s theory of territory and sovereignty. Practically, a historical understanding of the drug economy in northern Myanmar can contribute to China-Myanmar relations and show the challenges and opportunities of regionalization between Yunnan and Myanmar.