"The Arakan Army or AA is the latest incarnation of Rakhine nationalism taken to an extreme conclusion, and taken root in a periphery previously ignored by the state. Its ideological forebears are found in the nearly defunct Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), which like the CNF was relatively inactive in comparison to Myanmar?s tenacious northern and eastern insurgencies. The ALP also signed the 2015 NCA. Its 60 to 100 claimed fighters may be a hopeful estimate. The AA view the contemporary ALP leadership as traitors to a cause built upon a discourse both rich and misunderstood. Rakhine nationalism is that of a neglected colonial backwater dwelling upon past glories, of which the targeting of Rohingya is not a cause, but a symptom..."