"Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma: Understanding the Foreign Relations of the Burmese Praetorian State" by Renaud Egreteau and Larry Jagan and "Strong Soldiers, Failed Revolution: The State and Military in Burma, 1962-1988" by Yoshihiro Nakanishi....."Myanmar?s most powerful institution, the military, has managed to retreat into the background and largely avoid the scrutiny of foreign analysts and experts who have focused on the country?s supposed transition to democratic rule, the need for constitutional change and a flawed peace process aimed at bringing various ethnic insurgent groups that have fought for decades for autonomy under the government?s control. Two new books should help fill this analytical gap. Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma: Understanding the Foreign Relations of the Burmese Praetorian State is a study of the role of the military in Myanmar?s foreign policy by French academic Renaud Egreteau and Anglo-Australian freelance journalist Larry Jagan. Strong Soldiers, Failed Revolution: The State and Military in Burma, 1962-1988 is a detailed account of military politics in broad context by Japanese Southeast Asia scholar Yoshihiro Nakanishi...."