Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Myanmar two weeks ago pledging friendship and cooperation between the two countries. Wang met with his Myanmar counterpart, Aung San Suu Kyi, the first visit he’s made since Myanmar’s president was sworn into office.
Despite her party’s electoral triumphs in Myanmar, it looked as if the Nobel laureate’s executive powers were blocked. But no.
Former U.S. Chief of Mission in Myanmar Priscilla Clapp told VOA that while Washington is restructuring the remaining financial sanctions, individuals and entities should be targeted to promote better behavior. "There is still a need for some form of sanctions against the military, and military elements in the economy because the military has too much control over the economy in the country," she said.
The US removed a number of Myanmar companies and banks from its sanctions list on Tuesday but kept the bulk of its remaining measures in place despite the country’s landmark change in government.
“Some military units clearly viewed rape as a legitimate means of demoralizing and degrading their enemies,” Clapp said. “Yes, that was used. It still is, unfortunately.” “In reality, the military government was using violence against everybody, not just women,” she continued. “The army was an equal-opportunity violence machine, aimed at men, women, and children.”
Clapp is the co-author with Mort Halperin of what I consider one of the most important books you can read about US foreign policy. It’s called Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy, and as the title suggests, the book describes the role of the bureaucracy in shaping US foreign policy. We kick off with an extended conversation about that book, and then have another extended conversation about how Clapp, as the State Department official in charge of refugee programs in the late 1980s, used t...
"An international response that consists primarily of assigning blame for this humanitarian tragedy is no longer tenable. It is time for the international community to organize a realistic, workable solution."—senior advisor at the United States ...
The NLD “can't govern on its own, but it can govern in partnership with the military,” said Priscilla Clapp, a former U.S. diplomat in Burma and a senior adviser to the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace. Besides reserving a quarter of ...
This time, the military and the ruling USDP were “pretty realistic” about their election prospects, said Priscilla Clapp, a former U.S. diplomat in Burma and now a senior adviser to the U.S. Institute of Peace. But they decided that they “can manage it ...
The sanctions were premised on the demand that “the N.L.D. be given its rightful place in government, and that's happening now,” said Ms. Clapp, now a senior adviser to the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Asia Society. “The U.S. government needs to ...