The forced migration of the Rohingya in Myanmar: A case of Azars protracted social conflict theory

The Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar have faced decades of marginalization and structural injustice, producing one of the most persistent displacement crises of the 21st century. This paper employs Edward Azar’s Protracted Social Conflict (PSC) theory to investigate the structural and historical forces behind Rohingya forced migration. PSC’s four ‘Genesis factors’—communal content, deprivation of human needs, state provision (governance failures), and international linkages—provide the basis for analyzing how identity-based inequalities and state practices have turned a local grievance into a protracted conflict. From this point of view, the Rohingya crisis appears not only as a humanitarian disaster but also as an example of state-led structural violence shaped by both regional politics and global inaction. The analysis utilizes secondary sources, including UN reports, historical accounts, and recent studies on Southeast Asian displacement. The study concludes that PSC theory continues to offer useful knowledge for understanding identity-driven conflicts and displacement in the modern world, while also extending its application to Southeast Asian contexts where protracted displacement remains insufficiently explored.