Myanmar/Burma

The nation of Myanmar-or Burma, the name still used in much of the West-is in the midst of a political succession process centered on multiparty elections to be held toward the end of 2010. Approaching that critical event, this volume looks at the nation through the eyes of the country's ASEAN partners, its superpower neighbors China and India, the United States, and its own people. It provides insights into the problem of national reconciliation, the strategic competition between China and India, the role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the underperforming, resource-cursed economy. Burma had the brightest prospects of any Southeast Asian nation after World War II but has since dropped to the bottom rungs of the world's socioeconomic ladder and was labeled an outpost of tyrannyA" by U.S. Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice in 2005. The current regime has ruled with an iron fist for several decades, producing an exodus of political and economic refugees. It came under intensified international scrutiny for repudiating the 1990 elections and suppressing Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. This important book was prompted by the change in U.S. policy toward Myanmar/Burma signaled very early in the Obama administration. Noting that fifteen years of sanctions had not had measurable impact, the administration adopted a new policy of pragmatic engagementA" that links the eventual removal of sanctions to implementation of greater freedom and respect for human rights.