By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Few imagined Myanmar would embrace democracy when the U.S. began its historic engagement with the military regime. The country's rapid changes were lauded by visiting Western leaders, and the nation's president was hailed as a hero. But spasms of spreading, communal violence show the reform path is bumpier than expected and have taken the sheen off a foreign policy success of the Obama administration's first term.
To hear the Obama administration tell it, the motivations behind the current U.S. foreign policy pivot to Asia couldn't be more obvious.
The Obama administration wants to "pivot" U.S. foreign policy toward Asia. There are far too few details to know exactly what that means. In the meantime, the administration is right to highlight America's enduring interests in that region.
"We won't really know whether the U.S. going so far and so fast on sanctions was the right thing to do for at least a year or so yet," said Lohman, who recommended the U.S. set benchmarks Myanmar should meet for sanctions to be lifted entirely. "The military could still call this whole thing off if they want to."
Walter Lohman, director of the Asia program at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, said the administration was right to normalize diplomatic relations but moved too quickly to suspend investment and trade sanctions.
