Values over Interests

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of US policy toward Myanmar/Burma since 1988, when a previous coup and nationwide protests roiled the latter’s politics. Broadly speaking, geographic distance has meant that American values of human rights and democracy have guided policymaking in Washington with strong bipartisan support across several decades. However, the US–Burma relationship has seen dramatic variation between successive US presidential administrations in response to political changes within Burma/Myanmar. In recent years, great power competition with China has brought strategic interests—informed by realism in national security—into tension with a values-based approach emphasizing democracy and human rights. The chapter focuses on two intersecting axes of policy change: the competition between geopolitical interests (realism) and values (idealism); and that between Congress and the executive branch. By examining US policy from George H.W. Bush to Joseph Biden Jr., this study demonstrates how successive US leaders have wrestled with varying approaches to those parallel challenges. Overall, it shows that administrations with a more active interest in Myanmar have managed to wrest control from Congress, which has traditionally enjoyed strong influence over Burma policy. It also reveals a quiet if persistent theme of regime change underlying multiple administrations’ approaches. This overview utilizes historical databases of past US legislation as well as author interviews with senior officials from the most recent administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of the Biden administration’s response to the military coup of February 1, 2021 so far.