New Delhi, April 22 -- Myanmar's crisis has entered a new and more consequential phase-one that can no longer be understood through the traditional lens of state failure. What is unfolding is not simply the weakening of central authority, but its fragmentation into multiple competing centers of power. The recent decision by Min Aung Hlaing to assume the presidency has been widely interpreted as a consolidation of control. In reality, it reflects a deeper erosion of state authority, where symbolism increasingly substitutes for substance in a rapidly changing political landscape.

For much of the past three years, international analysis has remained anchored in an outdated assumption-that a central authority in Naypyitaw still meaningfully ...