Introduction: Communities of interpretation and the construction of modern Myanmar.

This article presents an overview of scholarly interpretation of Myanmar. The author credits the unique mixture of historical, cultural and political forces for the ever-changing, contradictory and debatable nature of Burmese society. Contemporary debate generally centers on the conflict between the forces of democracy, as represented by Aung San Suu Kyi, and the military dictatorship that rules the nation. The papers that follow in this issue consider Myanmar's intellectual history from various perspectives.