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Chair: Dr Amanda Chisholm, Senior Lecturer in Security Studies / Researcher in Gender and Security
Speaker: Anna Plunkett, Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of War Studies
Since the end of the Cold War, democracies have sought to create a range of normative and international legal standards intended to reduce the frequency, and legitimacy, of coups. The rise of the anti-coup norm has led to the isolation and punishment of numerous coup-created governments, and evidence suggests it has helped reduce the frequency of coup attempts.
However, the norm is contested, and coup leaders often find that the international condemnation they face is countered by quiet acquiescence or active support by authoritarian countries. This paper examines the strategies that autocratic regimes use to counter the anti-coup norm, and explores the ways in which these strategies can contribute to the consolidation of authoritarian regimes in coup-affected countries.
The paper draws on recent scholarship on norm contestation to explore the way in which authoritarian ‘norm resisters’ challenge Western efforts to promote universal democracy norms. The paper uses a case study of the international response in the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup to illustrate the nature of anti-coup norm resistance by authoritarian regimes, and its implications for the military regime in Myanmar.
Bio
Anna Plunkett is a lecturer in International Relations at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. She has just completed her PhD in the Department of War Studies, where she was awarded an ESRC studentship for her project ‘Opportunities and Obstructions: The Role of Local Elites in Creating Sub-National Variation within Nationally Led, Top-Down Regime Transitions’. She holds an MA in Post-War Recovery Studies and a BA in Politics and Economics from the University of York. Alongside her academic work Anna has worked as a strategic consultant and human rights researcher within several post-conflict environments building capacity and sustainability within small organisations.
Her research focuses on the role of local elites as mediators and obstacles within nationally led regime transitions. She is interested in how the presence of such alternative authority structures impact communities’ experiences of national political processes. Her work has primarily focused on the ongoing regime transition processes and localised conflicts within Myanmar. She is presently working to develop a comparative study of local elites within post-conflict regime transitions.
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Lecturer in International Relations