"The early days of the Burmese military provide important clues to how it views society, progress and itself...Mary Callahan?s remarkable book, Making Enemies, is the closest study yet to reveal why the modern Tatmadaw has pursued violent state-building strategies, creating a huge gulf between itself as an institution and the society it purports to protect. Callahan explores just how these brutal, inept, and intellectually bankrupt elite can maintain such enduring military rule, by uncovering their growth as an institution and the creation of a Tatmadaw ?ideology? in the 1950s. The military has gradually come to view all of society as ?potential enemies? in its drive to mold the nation in its image and preserve the sovereignty of the state..."