CPG Director Henning Glaser joined Insight Myanmar for a podcast discussion titled “The Social Contract,” examining the relationship between constitutionalism, statehood, and the social contract in Myanmar.

The 2.5-hour conversation addresses a central question in Myanmar’s political development: what conditions are necessary for a constitution to become an effective and enduring framework of governance? Drawing on constitutional theory, comparative experience, and Myanmar’s constitutional history, Henning Glaser argues that constitutions—as expressions of a political community’s shared vision—can only function when supported by legitimacy, institutional capacity, and political authority. As he notes during the discussion, constitutional order ultimately depends on more than constitutional design alone: “constitutions need power.”

Reflecting on Myanmar’s constitutional history, Henning Glaser examines the consequences of unresolved questions of statehood, political belonging, and the distribution of power. The discussion addresses the legacy of the 1947 Panglong Agreement between the Burmese leadership and several ethnic minority groups, the challenges of building civic unity in a diverse society, and the complex relationship between constitutional development, federalism, and peacebuilding. Rather than treating constitutional reform primarily as a matter of institutional design and legal drafting, he emphasizes the need to ground constitutional ambition in political realities, arguing that sustainable constitutional orders emerge gradually through the development of trust, functioning institutions, and shared political commitments.

The discussion builds on a previous Insight Myanmar episode, “The Long Stalemate,” which examined Myanmar’s military and political situation and the likelihood of a prolonged stalemate in which neither the regime nor the fragmented opposition can achieve decisive victory. It highlights how competing ethnic armed actors, external geopolitical rivalries, and the expansion of illicit economies reinforce the conflict and reduce prospects for a coherent post-conflict settlement.

Together, the two conversations offer a complementary perspective on Myanmar’s future: the first explains why a stable political settlement remains difficult to achieve, while the second explores the constitutional, institutional, and societal foundations required for such a settlement to endure.

The full discussion, “The Social Contract,” is available here, and the earlier conversation, “The Long Stalemate,” can be accessed here.