The attempted coup of February 2021 by the State Administration Council (SAC) has catalysed dramatic shifts in Myanmar’s political and security landscapes. As the SAC has failed to assert its political authority, new governance systems have emerged under the National Unity Government (NUG) and a range of local level revolutionary coalitions. Meanwhile, ethnic resistance organisations (EROs) both aligned and non-aligned to the NUG, have been able to expand their areas of control.1

This chapter examines the ways that political authority is established by competing actors in the context of Myanmar’s post-2021 civil war and explores the implications of emerging governance dynamics for the country’s future. I draw on a range of concepts from the international literature to highlight the importance of political authority and governance for the resistance movement’s immediate struggle to take down the military junta and for its long-term agenda of establishing a lasting, peaceful, federal democratic union of Myanmar.