NEWS & EVENTS

Trouble in Myanmar: US Policy Choices and Challenges

In the afternoon of October 27th, as part of the ongoing Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies Seminar Series, Erin Murphy, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow for the Economics Program at the CSIS | Center for Strategic & International Studies, joined us to discuss her experience in Myanmar.

She spoke about how a one-month assignment for the CIA in 2008 led to years of research, culminating in her book, “Burmese Haze: US Policy and Myanmar’s Opening—and Closing.” Ms. Murphy discussed then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s visits to the country, in 2011 and 2012 respectively, to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy opposition leader at the time. She also discussed the Obama administration’s rapprochement policy with the reform-era government in Myanmar. Ms. Murphy outlined the decline of Myanmar’s democracy following the military clearance operations against the Rohingya people in 2017 and the ensuing sanctions, which complicated the situation on the ground as a result of Myanmar’s disconnection from the international finance system. Ms. Murphy finished with a discussion of the dire situation in Myanmar today, following the 2021 coup d’etat.