101Scout
08-11-2007, 02:39 PM
Who didn't see this one coming? This has been so crucial to the US in how we treat our once Asian political friends. This one can come to haunt us more than the ME. What else is new thanks to BushCo?
:poking::character0093:
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Southeast Asia
Aug 3, 2007
Asia a casualty of the Iraq war
By Haseenah Koyakutty
The administration of US President George W Bush upset the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by recently calling off plans to attend the commemorative US-ASEAN summit planned for September. The reason: that's a decisive month in the war in Iraq.
No one in the administration foresaw that the September 5 summit in Singapore was going to conflict with General David Petraeus' report card on the "surge" of US troops in Iraq. The congressional calendar is predictable, even if politics is not, and the 10 heads of government in Southeast Asia are being stood up over what is apparently a scheduling glitch.
Washington had never treated the ARF this way since its inception in 1994, and the faux pas made for flashy headlines. The Bush administration scrambled to make amends and argue that it was still a player in the region. Skeptics, however, doubted the administration's seriousness of purpose. Their misgivings turned out to be prescient. Rice has again sent a deputy to the ARF that is taking place in Manila this week.
Rice's passing over of yet another Asian jamboree may seem minor in the scheme of foreign-policy issues confronting the United States and its beleaguered administration. But consider this: ASEAN is a bigger export market for US products than China. Yet the US chose to be absent from the 2005 ASEAN economic ministers' meeting held in the Laotian capital, Vientiane. The US is also not part of the ASEAN + 3 annual gatherings that connect ASEAN with its three Northeast Asian partners, China, Japan and South Korea.
Finally, the United States has been excluded from several recent multilateral initiatives. The new continentwide East Asia Summit, which has welcomed Australia and New Zealand but not the US, may lack substance for now, but it represents half of the world's population. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is another rising bloc in Central Asia that briefly got Washington's attention in 2005 when it issued a timeline for US forces to pull out of Uzbekistan.
Yes, the United States has fought three wars in Asia. It has built a vast network of multiple alliances over time. But habitual absences and lower-level representation at critical forums dilute the message, even if the messenger is Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who is attending the ARF in Rice's place. Culturally, the substitution will go down as contempt. In short, missteps, missed opportunities, and miscalculations have slowly come to shape America's Asia policy.
The implications are far-reaching. The United States has few friends, and it should keep the ones who wish it well. Rather than a "second front" in the "war on terror", Southeast Asia has become a back-burner issue for the Bush administration. Rice once labeled Myanmar an "outpost of tyranny". If difficult diplomacy is yielding progress in North Korea, the same patience and care can be pursued elsewhere.
The United States can help strengthen reform-minded institutions and, together with its allies, tackle problems where interests converge, such as Myanmar. Or the United States can go it alone. If a power vacuum arises in Asia, other countries at ASEAN's doorstep are certainly willing to step in.
The US State Department acknowledges that relations with ASEAN are "rough right now", but it is "something we can recover from".
The diplomatic bungling would not have been so disappointing if the meeting were routine. But this is no mere dress rehearsal. The inaugural summit was meant to celebrate and cement 30 years of US-ASEAN ties.
:poking::character0093:
:poking::character0093:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
Southeast Asia
Aug 3, 2007
Asia a casualty of the Iraq war
By Haseenah Koyakutty
The administration of US President George W Bush upset the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by recently calling off plans to attend the commemorative US-ASEAN summit planned for September. The reason: that's a decisive month in the war in Iraq.
No one in the administration foresaw that the September 5 summit in Singapore was going to conflict with General David Petraeus' report card on the "surge" of US troops in Iraq. The congressional calendar is predictable, even if politics is not, and the 10 heads of government in Southeast Asia are being stood up over what is apparently a scheduling glitch.
Washington had never treated the ARF this way since its inception in 1994, and the faux pas made for flashy headlines. The Bush administration scrambled to make amends and argue that it was still a player in the region. Skeptics, however, doubted the administration's seriousness of purpose. Their misgivings turned out to be prescient. Rice has again sent a deputy to the ARF that is taking place in Manila this week.
Rice's passing over of yet another Asian jamboree may seem minor in the scheme of foreign-policy issues confronting the United States and its beleaguered administration. But consider this: ASEAN is a bigger export market for US products than China. Yet the US chose to be absent from the 2005 ASEAN economic ministers' meeting held in the Laotian capital, Vientiane. The US is also not part of the ASEAN + 3 annual gatherings that connect ASEAN with its three Northeast Asian partners, China, Japan and South Korea.
Finally, the United States has been excluded from several recent multilateral initiatives. The new continentwide East Asia Summit, which has welcomed Australia and New Zealand but not the US, may lack substance for now, but it represents half of the world's population. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is another rising bloc in Central Asia that briefly got Washington's attention in 2005 when it issued a timeline for US forces to pull out of Uzbekistan.
Yes, the United States has fought three wars in Asia. It has built a vast network of multiple alliances over time. But habitual absences and lower-level representation at critical forums dilute the message, even if the messenger is Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who is attending the ARF in Rice's place. Culturally, the substitution will go down as contempt. In short, missteps, missed opportunities, and miscalculations have slowly come to shape America's Asia policy.
The implications are far-reaching. The United States has few friends, and it should keep the ones who wish it well. Rather than a "second front" in the "war on terror", Southeast Asia has become a back-burner issue for the Bush administration. Rice once labeled Myanmar an "outpost of tyranny". If difficult diplomacy is yielding progress in North Korea, the same patience and care can be pursued elsewhere.
The United States can help strengthen reform-minded institutions and, together with its allies, tackle problems where interests converge, such as Myanmar. Or the United States can go it alone. If a power vacuum arises in Asia, other countries at ASEAN's doorstep are certainly willing to step in.
The US State Department acknowledges that relations with ASEAN are "rough right now", but it is "something we can recover from".
The diplomatic bungling would not have been so disappointing if the meeting were routine. But this is no mere dress rehearsal. The inaugural summit was meant to celebrate and cement 30 years of US-ASEAN ties.
:poking::character0093: