262 Southwick campaigns of violence and displacement. Over a million subsist as refugees or undocumented migrants in other countries. The Rohingya’s plight takes place against a backdrop of dramatic change, as the Myanmar government transitions from decades of military rule to civilian democracy. In less than three years, the government has worked to restore a range of civil and political rights, allowing for parliamentary elections and releasing hundreds of political prisoners. Steps have also been taken to improve interethnic relations, with efforts to end armed conflict with and allow more autonomy for some of the country’s largest minorities, such as the Shan and Kachin. An ongoing process of constitutional reform creates the possibility of more progress along these dimensions. As the country continues to open up to foreign investors, press, and other visitors, it faces more scrutiny. At the same time, ethnic and interreligious tensions have flared into some of the worst violence against the Rohingya in years. The risk of further violence can be mitigated, by taking advantage of opportunities that reforms have presented. Guided by national and international laws, the Myanmar government and regional and international actors can take steps to end the deadlock and despair that has long characterized the Rohingya’s statelessness. 2 Background For at least a millennium, Muslims and Buddhists have resided in Arakan, now known as Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh in western Myanmar. Under British rule in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large numbers of Hindu and Muslim immigrants from India came to Myanmar as labourers, administrators, and merchants. Their economic influence fuelled Burmese nationalism, with severe communal clashes taking place in Arakan during the Second World War. After the war, armed factions from both ethnic Rakhine and Muslim communities separately demanded autonomy from the central government. Since at least the 1950s, Muslims based in northern Arakan have called themselves ‘Rohingya’. According to scholar Martin Smith, while no conclusive studies exist regarding how Rohingya culture arose, it ‘is absolutely clear that in the Muslim-majority townships (…) in northernmost Arakan a distinctive but local Muslim culture has developed over the past two hundred years.’1 1 Martin Smith, ‘The Muslim Rohingya of Burma,’ Draft of Speech Delivered at Conference of Burma Centrum Nederland (11 December 1995). tilburg law review 19 (2014) 261-275