In terms of Myanmar's politics and security, the period 2007 to 2023, covered by this anthology, arguably encompasses the country's highest point since Independence in 1948, and its lowest point.

In 2008, a new constitution was introduced by the ruling State Peace and Development Council. This led to a national election in 2010 and the creation of a quasi-civilian government under former general Thein Sein. To the surprise of almost everyone, the new president introduced a range of reforms, including the relaxation of many laws and regulations that had made daily life in Myanmar terribly hard. This was followed in 2015 by the election of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, and five years of further reforms. It seemed to many people in Myanmar, and indeed to the world, that at long last the country had turned a corner, with a freer, fairer and more responsive government that offered real opportunities and hope to its citizens. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD were not without their shortcomings, but in many ways the period 2016 to 2020 marked a high point in Myanmar's history, probably the highest seen in three quarters of a century.

As history has shown, however, there was also a darker side. In 2016–17 the armed forces, always a baleful presence, launched a series of harsh pogroms against the Muslim Rohingya population in Rakhine State. Myanmar was accused of ethnic cleansing, even genocide. After the NLD's landslide re-election victory in 2020, the armed forces leadership staged a coup, for reasons that are still not clear. To the generals’ surprise, the civilian population, which now included a generation of young Burmese who had experienced ten years of relative freedom, immediately fought back. A nationwide civil disobedience movement soon morphed into an armed insurrection. The country descended into a bitter civil war. The armed forces responded in the only way they knew, with brutality, systematic human rights violations and even greater repression. The situation was, and remains, a low point in the country's history, the situation at least as dire as the dark days of the 1950s when the country was riven by internal unrest, violence and lawlessness.