Executive Summary: "This report provides historical background on militias in Myanmar and discusses the challenges presented by militias to resolving the country?s ongoing conflict. Most militias are allied with Myanmar?s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw. A few other militias support ethnic armed organizations. The primary duties of militias involve providing security for their communities, and some actively participate in Myanmar?s armed conflicts. In 2011, a quasi-democratic government led by President Thein Sein came to power and initiated a peace process aimed at resolving over sixty-five years of armed conflict. The peace process has produced a significant number of ceasefires, and recently entered a stage of political dialogue involving a broad range of actors. Yet despite their role in Myanmar?s ongoing conflicts, the issue of militias remains marginalized in analyses of conflict and the peace process. Militias pose several challenges for peacebuilding efforts in Myanmar. First, only limited information is available about militias. In consequence, several basic features of militias, such as how they operate, their numbers, and the roles they play in conflicts, are not well understood. Second, militias are armed and numerous, and they play active roles in armed conflict, but engagement with militias and discussion of their roles has been limited in the peace process. Often they are considered subordinate to either the Tatmadaw or ethnic armed groups. Third, the Tatmadaw?s incorporation of ceasefire groups into its militia system has made militias a political issue. The recent transformation of ceasefire groups into militias involved a decrease in the military strength of ethnic armed organizations. But several ethnic armed organizations did not accept the proposal to transform into militias, and have instead pushed for political dialogue with the military. Understanding these challenges is important for peacebuilding efforts. Given the challenges presented by the multitude of militias operating outside of Myanmar?s formal peace process, a more systematic look at militias and their role in the transition from conflict to peace is in order. To do so, this report begins with a brief overview of militias and the challenges that militias present for peacebuilding. The next section provides historical background on the roles played by militias in Myanmar?s armed conflicts and political struggles. Section three presents a typology of militias, as an analytical tool for understanding the complexity of the current array of militias operating in Myanmar. The fourth section examines the roles played by militias in the economy, politics, conflict, and the communities in which they operate. The final section draws on instances of peacebuilding in other countries, and considers issues regarding militias in Myanmar?s current period of reform."