Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor, Comparative Politics, City University of Hong Kong

Expert Bio

Renaud Egreteau holds a PhD in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris, and a degree in Asian Studies and Languages from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Langues O’) in Paris. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies at City University of Hong Kong, where he convenes the Master of Arts in Modern Asian Studies and teaches comparative politics. He enjoyed a terrific view over Woodrow Wilson Plaza for a full year while in residence at the Wilson Center (Class of 2015-2016). He also received visiting fellowships from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and taught at Sciences Po Paris (2008-09) and the University of Hong Kong (2009-13).

His research interests include political and legislative institutions, democratization and authoritarian resilience, and civil-military relations, with a particular focus on Myanmar and India. He has published in journals such as Parliamentary Affairs, the Journal of Legislative Studies, Contemporary Politics, Asian Survey, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, India Review and Asian Ethnicity, and is the author of Caretaking Democratization: The Military and Political Change in Myanmar (New York: Oxford University Press, and London: Hurst, 2016). His forthcoming book on Myanmar’s parliamentary resurgence – started at the Wilson Center – will soon be out. He has also written policy guidance on Myanmar’s parliamentary developments, including for The Asia Foundation, a Washington-based, non-profit development organization.

Wilson Center Project

“Legislatures and Political Change: The Case of Myanmar (Burma): A Study in the Resurgence of Parliament and its Role in Democratization in a Post-junta Era (2010-2015)”

Project Summary

The project seeks to provide a fresh perspective from which recent political and legislative changes in Myanmar can best be construed. Drawing exclusive interviews with Burmese legislators, it will offer an in-depth examination of the first “post-junta” legislature (2010-2015). The main question to be answered is whether, and if so, to what extent, Myanmar’s emerging parliament played a role in the ongoing transition and paved the way for the consolidation of pluralism in the country. In particular, the project will assess the contributions the legislature has made to the incremental process of political, if not necessarily democratic, change in Myanmar since 2010. In doing so, it hopes to encourage smarter international policy engagement with Myanmar’s new policy realities, and outline innovative ideas for international assistance to a policy-influencing institution that is deemed essential to any emerging democracy.

Major Publications

Caretaking Democratization: The Military and Political Change in Myanmar, New York: Oxford University Press& London: Hurst. 2016.

“(Re)-Emerging Patterns of Parliamentarian Politics”, in Steinberg, David I., ed., Myanmar: The Dynamics of an Evolving Polity, Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2014.

“Myanmar: Transition, Enduring Praetorian Politics and the Prospects from Democratic Change”, in Case, William, ed., Routledge Hanbook of Democratization in Southeast Asia, London: Routledge, 2014.

Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma: Understanding the Foreign Relations of the Burmese Praetorian State, Singapore: NUS Press. 2013.

Histoire de la Birmanie contemporaine: le pays des prétoriens, Paris: Fayard. 2010.

Wooing the Generals: India’s New Burma Policy, New Delhi:Authorspress. 2003