"Desmond Ball is a professor at the Strategic Defence Studies Centre of The Australian National University, Canberra. He is author or editor of several books and papers on Burma, Asia-Pacific security issues, and nuclear strategy. His books include The Ties That Bind, Burma?s Military Secrets and most recently, The Boys in Black, about Thailand?s para-military border guards. He spoke to The Irrawaddy about ethnic insurgency and intelligence gathering in Burma and neighboring countries... Over the last few years, although the overall strength of the various resistance armies has decreased, the military successes have in fact increased"...