{"id":8952,"date":"2022-02-22T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?p=8952"},"modified":"2023-08-06T20:56:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T10:56:12","slug":"myanmars-military-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar\u2019s military numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/tag\/andrew-selth\/\">ANDREW SELTH<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, countless attempts have been made to estimate the size of Myanmar\u2019s armed forces (or Tatmadaw). However, the fact remains that no one really knows. Despite the Tatmadaw\u2019s critical role in Myanmar\u2019s national affairs, its size has always been for observers one of the great \u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/41487385\" target=\"_blank\">known unknowns<\/a>\u201d. Similar questions arise over the membership of the various armed opposition groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ordinarily, such a count would be largely an&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eastasiaforum.org\/2010\/09\/17\/burmas-armed-forces-does-size-matter\/\" target=\"_blank\">academic exercise<\/a>. However, the military coup in February 2021 and Myanmar\u2019s rapid and unexpected slide into a bitter nationwide civil war have made answers to these puzzles of greater interest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Myanmar (then known as Burma) regained its independence in 1948, its armed forces grew steadily. However, despite constant challenges from a wide range of ethnic, ideological and economic insurgents, its formal strength never exceeded 186,000. This picture changed dramatically after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising when the new military regime launched a massive expansion and modernisation program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Please click here to read the full &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/the-interpreter\/myanmar-s-military-numbers\">Myanmar\u2019s military numbers<\/a>&#8221; article published at The Interpreter, written by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct <strong>Professor Andrew Selth<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANDREW SELTH\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0 Over the years, countless attempts have been made to estimate the size of Myanmar\u2019s armed forces (or Tatmadaw). However, the fact remains that no one really knows. Despite the Tatmadaw\u2019s critical role in Myanmar\u2019s national affairs, its size has always been for observers one of the great \u201cknown unknowns\u201d. Similar questions arise<a href=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Myanmar\u2019s military numbers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,1057],"tags":[1672,369,1066,959],"class_list":["post-8952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indonesia-and-southeast-asia","category-security","tag-andrew-selth","tag-myanmar","tag-myanmar-military","tag-tatmadaw"],"acf":[],"modified_by":null,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Myanmar\u2019s military numbers | Griffith Asia Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ANDREW SELTH\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0 Over the years, countless attempts have been made to estimate the size of Myanmar\u2019s armed forces (or Tatmadaw). However, the fact\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Myanmar\u2019s military numbers | Griffith Asia Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ANDREW SELTH\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0 Over the years, countless attempts have been made to estimate the size of Myanmar\u2019s armed forces (or Tatmadaw). However, the fact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Griffith Asia Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/griffithasiainstitute\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-21T22:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-06T10:56:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/02\/myanmar-military.jpg?fit=900%2C500&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Griffith Asia Institute\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GAIGriffith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GAIGriffith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Griffith Asia Institute\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Griffith Asia Institute\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#\/schema\/person\/8121b8aa336749474cbaca380c03029a\"},\"headline\":\"Myanmar\u2019s military numbers\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-21T22:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-06T10:56:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\"},\"wordCount\":189,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Andrew Selth\",\"Myanmar\",\"Myanmar military\",\"Tatmadaw\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Region | Indonesia and Southeast Asia\",\"Topic-Security\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/myanmars-military-numbers\/\",\"name\":\"Myanmar\u2019s military numbers | Griffith Asia Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-21T22:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-06T10:56:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"ANDREW SELTH\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0 Over the years, countless attempts have been made to estimate the size of Myanmar\u2019s armed forces (or Tatmadaw). 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