"Years of escalating censure and sanctions, have the military firmly entrenched in power, the opposition marginalized, and the general population suffering from deepening poverty. Based on extensive field research, Promoting Human Rights in Burma proposes an alternative model of "critical engagement" that emphasizes more pragmatic efforts to help bring a deeply divided society together and promote socioeconomic development as the basis for longer-term political change. Although the focus is squarely on Burma, the fallacles in Western policy thinking that this case study reveals, as well as the alternative policy framework it offers, have wider relevance for other poor, conflict-ridden countries on the periphery of the global political and economic system."--BOOK JACKET.