Disasters, despots and gun-boat diplomacy

Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta in 2008, devastating the region, causing 50,000 deaths, and leaving 2.5 million people homeless. The United States and the European Union, chief architects of the harshest international sanctions against the dictatorial regime in Myanmar, offered humanitarian aid. Myanmar's government at first refused, and then delayed and impeded, the delivery of aid. This response confounded the West. There were calls for the United Nations Security Council to invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to authorize delivery of aid without the consent of Myanmar's government. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called on the international community to "bash the doors down in Burma" to get critical aid to the people as soon as possible. This chapter considers disasters, and the Myanmar example, from three perspectives. First, how the international community responds to disasters when they occur within outlaw states. Second, how "pariah" states (or elements within them) deny international overtures of assistance in the aftermath of disasters. Third, how the failures and frustrations of the West's attempt to deliver aid to Myanmar were ultimately facilitated by a regional international organization: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Thus, the most effective response to disaster in such situations may come from organizations situated at the regional, rather than the global, level of governance.