Dr Anna B. Plunkett is Lecturer in International Law and Politics in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She specialises in the conflict-democracy nexus and autocratisation, with particular expertise in rebel governance, local political authority, post-conflict regime transitions and Myanmar.

Anna’s research examines how conflict shapes trajectories of democratisation and autocratisation, and how authority is negotiated between states, local elites, rebel organisations and communities. Her work focuses especially on actors operating beyond, below and in competition with the state. She explores how these actors mediate national reforms, govern conflict-affected territories, resist authoritarian consolidation and construct alternative forms of political legitimacy.

Anna’s wider research addresses the resurgence of authoritarian and illiberal politics, the contestation of democratic norms, and the development of alternative systems of authority during protracted conflict. Her current projects examine resistance to autocratisation, fragmented processes of regime transition, legitimacy-building by Myanmar’s National Unity Government, and the interaction between conflict, rebel governance and political transformation.

She also investigates international responses to coups, mass violence and democratic backsliding. Her research connects debates in comparative politics and conflict studies with questions concerning international law, human rights, intervention, genocide prevention and civilian protection. Her work has been published in the Review of International Studies and Genocide Studies and Prevention, with forthcoming contributions on democratic defence in British national security strategy and Myanmar’s minorities in post-coup politics.

Myanmar and Southeast Asia are central areas of Anna’s regional expertise. She has conducted extensive field research in Myanmar and Thailand and previously worked as an independent research and development consultant on the Thai-Myanmar border. She regularly contributes expert analysis on Myanmar, coups and authoritarian politics to academic, policy and public discussions, including broadcast contributions to the BBC, LBC and Deutsche Welle.

Anna teaches across international law, international politics, conflict and security, including Studying War; International Law, Human Rights and Intervention; War and Genocide; and Law and Conflict in International Society. Her research-led teaching encourages students to examine war as a legal, political and lived phenomenon, connecting the formal architecture of international law with questions of power, implementation, inequality and political contestation.

Alongside her disciplinary research, Anna is an established pedagogical scholar and education leader. Her work focuses on critical empathy, psychological distance, student belonging, authentic assessment and the implications of artificial intelligence for higher education. She is a founder of the Academic Scholarship in Politics and International Relations Education Network and has led national research into the experiences and career pathways of teaching-focused academics. In 2026, she received the Faculty Outstanding Educator Colleagues’ Choice Award and was nominated for a King’s Award.

PhD supervision

Anna welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD researchers whose projects connect with her areas of expertise, including:

• The conflict-democracy nexus

• Autocratisation, authoritarianism and democratic backsliding

• Democratisation and contested regime transitions

• Rebel governance and non-state political authority

• Local elites, grassroots politics and subnational governance

• Coups, anti-coup resistance and democratic norm contestation

• Protracted conflict and fragmented political orders

• International responses to conflict, mass violence and genocide

• International law, human rights and intervention

• Myanmar and Southeast Asian politics

She is particularly interested in supervising theoretically ambitious and empirically grounded projects that examine interactions between conflict, political authority, law and regime change. She welcomes interdisciplinary proposals and research that places local actors, institutions and experiences in dialogue with wider national and international processes. 

Publications

Peer-reviewed research

• Plunkett, Anna and Oisín Tansey (2024), ‘Norm Waverers and Norm Enforcement: ASEAN, Myanmar, and the Anti-Coup Norm’, Review of International Studies, First View, pp. 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210524000755. Published online 19 November 2024.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2020), ‘Democratization as a Protective Layering for Crimes Against Humanity: The Case of Myanmar’, Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, 14(3), pp. 69–89. https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.14.3.1718.

Research and working papers

• Plunkett, Anna and Oisín Tansey (2022), Contesting the Anti-Coup Norm: ASEAN Responds to the 2021 Myanmar Coup, IGCC Working Paper No. 3, UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

Selected public scholarship

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2026), ‘From Symbolic Icons to Democratic Power Brokers: Women as Defenders of Democracy’, King’s College London, 6 March 2026.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2021), ‘Aung San Suu Kyi Trial: How Myanmar’s Judicial System Is Stacked Against the Deposed Leader’, The Conversation.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2021), ‘Slim Chance for Suu Kyi at Myanmar’s Kangaroo Courts’, Asia Times.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2021), ‘Myanmar: The End of the Democratic Dream?’, International Affairs blog.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2020), ‘Just Words? The Failure of the “Never Again” Convention’, Strife.

Selected book reviews

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2021), review of The Hidden History of Burma: A Crisis of Race and Capitalism and Women, Peace and Security in Myanmar: Between Feminism and Ethnopolitics, International Affairs, 97(4), pp. 1276–1278.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2021), review of The Constitution of Myanmar: A Contextual Analysis, International Affairs, 97(1), pp. 253–254.

• Plunkett, Anna B. (2020), review of Rebel Politics: A Political Sociology of Armed Struggle in Myanmar’s Borderlands, International Affairs, 96(2), pp. 555–556.