The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is a crucial Southeast Asian / South Asian state that has significant opportunities to develop rapidly. However, the character of the twenty-first century global political economy is interdependent, globalising and yet also mercantilist. These attributes make the developmental task exceedingly complex. How can Myanmar develop whilst maintaining a unique and valuable identity within a globalising system; gain appropriate developmental rewards from interdependence and against the desires of mercantilist states; and distribute development internally to enable a modern political economy? In order to address these questions this seminar considers the region historically, development as a concept, the European political economy as the basis of the global political economy, and then the development model offered by the People’s Republic of China.