Radio War Nerd EP #566 — Myanmar Insurgency: Chin State
Guest: Matt
Recorded: December 4, 2025
Myanmar's ruling junta has faced a broad and multi-faceted insurgency ever since the military, the Tatmadaw, overthrew the civilian government and set itself up as the State Administration Council (SAC). RWN subscriber "Matt" joins us to discuss the insurgency in one of the key regions, Chin state, on Myanmar's western border with India and Bangladesh (maps below). As you'll hear, the complexity of the insurgency in this one sparsely-populated region gives a sense of how complex the national insurgency is.
*Required reading: "An Overview Of The Chin Theater" from Matt's Adventures in Asia Tenggara
Key players/acronyms:
SAC - State Administration Council, junta set up by the Tatmadaw (military);
CBA - Chin Brotherhood Alliance, umbrella grouping of post-coup insurgent groups mostly active in the poorer south and northwest of Chin State;
CC - The Chinland Council, dominated by the Chin National Army, the oldest insurgent group set up in 1988 across the border in India. The CC broke away from another umbrella grouping with the CBA, and now they're fighting a separate internecine battle;
ZRA-EC - Zomi Revolutionary Army–Eastern Command. Controls border enclave in northwest Chin State, offshoot of older Indian insurgent group ZRA.
AA - Arakan Army. Powerful Rakhine State insurgent army, conventional, ~50,000 strong, extreme ethnonationalist, irredentist. (Not to be confused with Arrakis, causing Ames some difficulties)
Maps (mostly taken from Matt's newsletter)
*Myanmar states
*Region map
*Indian states Manipur and Mizoram + Bangladesh bordering Chin, Rakhine states
*Chin State control map
*India's planned transport project (KMTTP) linking mainland with far eastern states via AA-controlled Rakhine and Chin states
*Further listening:
-EP #101 - Rohingya, Myanmar & The Empire
-EP #271 - Burma's Ethnic Militias
-EP #411 - Myanmar's Uncut Gems
Total time: 1:24:36
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Buy & review John Dolan's new book, They Should Have Been Hanged: War Nerd Essays on the U.S. Civil War
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Sound production by Telescope Audio
Comments (17)
Great ep. Mark, you should have @amerikanets aka RippleBrain from Twitter on to talk Europe and Ukraine. He's one of the best commentors on the subject via his Substack and very funny on twitter.
Great episode and guest.
It's a little strange to me that every episode RWN has done about Myanmar has had a different guest.
I frequently listen to a CIA/NED aligned podcast run by an American buddhist called Insight Myanmar. It’s refreshing to hear a clearer perspective. I’d love to listen to a conversation between Matt and that host, especially regarding the allegations of Russian and Chinese interference
Matt here, I woukd love to go on, I listen to IB sometimes. WRT China and Russia Chinas role is quite prominent in the east/north (not as a cause of the war but more in the post coup civil war) and is very complex and multilayered. Russias role is pretty marginal, but they do sell arms to the tatmadaw
Phenomenal
Not related to this episode, but one of the most underrated aspects of the show in the last decade is media literacy: your many discussions on how to read between the lines when reading mainstream, “respectable” media. Not just identifying propaganda. But picking up on the little quirks and insinuations the writers sprinkle in In this example from friend of the show, rhe BBC, the headline already caught my eye. “Ukrainians raise flag to show BBC the fight goes on in city claimed by Russia”. Yes it’s an obvious truth that much of Ukraine’s strategy is for PR. But for the BBC to point this out in a headline? Telling. I almost wonder if they’re continuing their “it was Ukraine’s fault” narrative. “For Russia, Pokrovsk is another stepping stone towards its goal of taking control of all of the Donbas. But Ukraine needs to prove it is still capable of resisting… Over the radio, they ask two of their soldiers to break cover from a building to display a Ukrainian flag. They move quickly to avoid being spotted. The drone feed shows the moment they briefly wave their yellow and blue flag, before quickly returning to cover.” Idk, maybe I’m not cynical enough (classic John line), but I couldn’t believe when I read this. For some Ukrainian officer to admit that a lot of what they’re doing is PR for the media, yeah, this late into the war, I get it. But for the BBC to basically confirm it out loud? This article isn’t “turning” on Ukraine, but it’s almost worst in how it points this all out. Maybe I’m overthinking but here’s the full article: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6x3vv7y60o.amp
First Naboo, now Arrakis
much needed episode to understand the complexity of the conflict. great episode and the guest did well to break it all down
Another Sardukar example - press ganged - like the Janissaries
This is totally unrelated, but a friend of mine asked me if I thought the CIA was dealing with the colonels in the Ogaden War, and I replied that I really knew nothing about that, though I'd never put anything past the American three-letter agencies. Is there an episode that touches on that?
Lone cohost like the lone rangers from airheads.
Great episode on a very complicated conflict !
Ah yes Chin, where everyone looks like a GigaChad
Fun fact, new UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van is from Chin State!
Hell yeah John! Heal up bro! Don't rush it. Mark good job keeping it going solo. I know it's gotta be a shit load to take on.
Thanks for having me on! Hope everybody enjoys!