Word: asia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Over soy lattes and buttery-soft muffins, I sat down in a coffee shop a few weeks ago with one of Washington's savviest Asia activists. Through endless networking and tireless advocacy, she has helped keep Burma's human-rights abuses on Washington's radar, even though the country has little strategic significance to the U.S. During the George W. Bush Administration, she exuded confidence. Now she's anxious. Barack Obama's government has taken a close interest in Burma, but not the sort she wants. On a trip to Asia in February, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told...
...Burma is not the only country in Southeast Asia to draw the attention of the new U.S. Administration. While other recent American Presidents pretty much ignored the region, Obama has made it a priority because his government sees Southeast Asia as a place where Washington can pick up some quick goodwill. Clinton made her first overseas trip to Asia and since then she has built a team of Southeast Asia experts who include nominated Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, a longtime Washington power player who lobbies in particular for stronger ties with Singapore...
...During the Bush years, senior officials paid about as much attention to Southeast Asia as to New Orleans' levee system. Policymakers would jet into Singapore to take in a couple of days of private meetings with local officials, then return to Washington never having set foot in regional giants like Indonesia. And when the White House did attend to Indonesia or Malaysia or Thailand, it usually focused only on talking to the élite, or about counterterrorism. Now, with Indonesia, which is proving to be Southeast Asia's most vibrant democracy, the Obama Administration sees an opportunity to build...
...With other countries in Southeast Asia, too, the new Administration has shown itself willing to question years of received wisdom. While Laura Bush condemned the Burmese junta, the Obama Administration has held relatively high-level talks with the country's leadership - in March, Stephen Blake, the State Department's director of Southeast Asian affairs, met Foreign Minister Nyan Win in Naypyidaw. Condoleezza Rice would skip ASEAN's Regional Forum, and the Bush Administration refused to sign ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. The treaty is pretty innocuous - it merely pledges signatories to uphold a zone of peace in Southeast...
...Still, at least Southeast Asia is no longer off the U.S.'s map. Issues in the region are not as pressing or as vital to American interests as they are in, say, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But precisely because they aren't, Southeast Asia is where Washington can win easy points at a time when it needs as many as it can score...