Now that the election has reached its denouement, attention is now
turned to President Obama's coming second term and what his likely strategy
will be for creating a lasting legacy. The full implementation of Obama-Care
seems assured, and the White House and congressional Republicans are both
showing the first inklings of a willingness to compromise on a budget deal to
stave off the impending fiscal cliff.
The President's goals for
healthcare, the economy and the budget are relatively easy to identify, but the
foreign policy plans of the administration are somewhat murkier. Yet there are
early indications that the administration may use its second term to build a
robust U.S. presence in Asia and the Pacific.
The lame duck congress provides
the President with an opportunity to begin expanding U.S. economic involvement
in South East Asia and the around the Pacific Rim and to put the full power and
force of the office behind fledgeling democracies like that of Burma (also
known as Myanmar). While the negotiations over the fiscal cliff are a major
commitment, domestic demands overall will be somewhat lighter until the
inauguration, and President Obama has plans for a whirlwind tour of Southeast
Asia.
The White House announced
Thursday that Obama will become the first ever president to visit Burma. The
President plans to visit Burma, along with Cambodia and Thailand, Nov. 17 to
20, according to Politico.
The decision to increase U.S.
involvement with Burma was made as a result of democratic reforms in that
nation, including the addition of opposition parties to parliament, led by Aung
San Suu Kyi, relaxation of press restrictions, expansion of worker rights, and
new ceasefires and movement away from the use of child soldiers.
“We have eased sanctions,
appointed our first ambassador in 22 years, and opened a USAID mission. At the
same time, we have also updated sanctions authorities that allow us to target
those who interfere with the peace process or the transition to democracy, and
we created a ground-breaking framework for responsible investment from the
United States that encourages transparency and oversight,” Special Assistant to
the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights
Samantha Power wrote Friday.
The visit to Burma is a
continuation of a philosophy that the Obama Administration first launched
during the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East. “America’s interests are
served when ordinary people are empowered to chart their own political and
economic futures,” Power wrote, adding that nations that “take the risks that
reform entails … will have the full support of the United States.”
In recent months, though, Obama
has come under pressure to provide more direct support to the ongoing rebellion
in Syria, but thus far the U.S. has remained essentially hands-off with that
conflict. That difference in approach seems to stem largely from a greater
level of trust in Burma's reforms, particularly given the prominent role of
Aung San Suu Kyi, than in the movement of the Free Syrian Army. However, the
focus on Burma, especially when compared to Syria, also demonstrates certain
aspects of the Administration's overall foreign policy plan.
Earlier in the year, the U.S.
began deploying the first of a total of 2,500 troops to Australia and a new
free trade agreement with South Korea was entered into in March. The
President's upcoming visit to Burma, Cambodia and Thailand comes just a few
weeks before the next round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP), a broad trade agreement between nine Pacific Rim nations, which notably
does not include China.
Obama has increasingly been
focusing U.S. foreign policy on the Pacific and Southeast Asia, in part to
further his ostensible legacy of helping nations forge democracy, but also in
part to strengthen Free Trade agreements and U.S. economic interests in the
region in an attempt to thwart growing Chinese economic strength. While Burma
is a small player in the world economy and is not a major strategic interest in
Southeast Asia, the President's visit is symbolically important in the way it
represents the projection of American economic and foreign policy interests around
the Pacific.
Benjamin Reeves
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