“This focus on Southeast Asia is an important element of the current administration’s overall focus on U.S. relations with the Asia Pacific – a focus which represents one of the most significant periods of U.S. regional activism in decades,” notes Dr. Satu Limaye, director of the East-West Center in Washington.
In this light, the East-West Center brought together a group of U.S. regional specialists and Southeast Asian commentators to examine issues facing U.S. engagement with the region. The bilateral relationships examined include U.S. involvement with Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Burma/Myanmar, and Vietnam.
The experts who contributed to the publication include:
- Cambodia/Laos: Carlyle A. Thayer , Professor of Politics, the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, Australia, and Vatthana Pholsena , Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and currently affiliated with the Institut d’Asie Orientale in Lyons, France.
- Indonesia: Ann Marie Murphy , Associate Professor at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University, New Jersey, and Meidyatama Suryodiningrat , Editor-in-Chief of the Jakarta Post in Indonesia.
- Burma/Myanmar: Priscilla Clapp , former US Chargée d’Affaires in Yangon, Burma/Myanmar, and Harn Yawnghwe , Executive Director of the Euro-Burma Office in Brussels, Belgium.
- Vietnam: Frederick Z. Brown , Visiting Research Scholar at the Southeast Asia Studies Department of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C., USA, and Hoang Anh Tuan , diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam.
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The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Established by the US Congress in 1960 with current facilities in Honolulu and Washington, D.C., the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options.
Contemporary Southeast Asia is an internationally refereed journal that specializes in the politics, international relations, and security-related issues of Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic environment. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies is a regional research centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The aim of the Institute is to nurture a community of scholars interested in the region and to engage in research on the multi-faceted dimensions and issues of stability and security, economic development, and political, social and cultural change .