For nearly a decade, Bangladesh’s policy on Myanmar has revolved around a single question: how to manage more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. That question remains important but it is no longer the most important one. A far more significant transformation is taking place along Bangladesh’s southeastern frontier. The Arakan Army, once an insurgent movement fighting Myanmar’s military, now controls most of Rakhine State and virtually the entire border with Bangladesh.

A non-state actor – the Arakan Army – now controls Myanmar’s side of the border. That forces Bangladesh to rely more on unilateral forms of border management.

For nearly a decade, Bangladesh’s policy on Myanmar has revolved around a single question: how to manage more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled the genocide and ethnic…