Word: bushing
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...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 reporters that the White House would review its policy toward Burma...
...power player who lobbies in particular for stronger ties with Singapore and Australia. It's not just a matter of engagement. As with its actions and statements elsewhere, the Obama Administration is displaying flexibility and pragmatism in its dealings with Southeast Asia - not the ideological approach espoused by the Bush White House. These fresh initiatives promise, however, not only to be different but, in some cases, controversial...
...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...
...highly unlikely that the United States will be able to persuade or pressure Iran to forgo uranium enrichment entirely," former Bush Administration State Department official and current Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass recently noted. "The best that can be hoped for is a ceiling on what Tehran does - in particular, not enrich uranium to a concentration required for a weapon - and intrusive inspections so that the world can be confident of this. The outcome is less than ideal, to say the least, but it is one we could live with...