Is Myanmar the Model for Cuba’s Reforms?

Is Myanmar the Model for Cuba's Reforms?
by Joshua Kurlantzick
March 9, 2016

Over the past six months, the Obama White House has rapidly bolstered
diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba. Last month, Washington and
Havana signed a deal restoring commercial flights between the two
countries for first time in over fifty years; the deal, one of many
agreements recently reached, came at the same time as Washington allowed
a U.S. factory to set up in Cuba. The outreach to the island is an
attempt, according to deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, to
ensure that the U.S.-Cuba rapprochement is nearly irreversible by the
time that Obama leaves office. To further cement ties, Obama will visit
Cuba later this month—making him the first U.S. president to do so since
Calvin Coolidge.

Recently, White House officials also have begun mentioning a more
specific template for this bilateral rapprochement, and for how Cuba
might open up its economy and its political system: Myanmar. Since the
first days of Obama's first term, administration officials placed a
priority on restoring closer U.S. ties with Myanmar. Myanmar was, at the
time, isolated from the United States and most other democracies by
decades of junta rule, destructive economic policies, and sanctions
imposed after massive rights abuses by Myanmar's leaders. The Obama
administration believed that sanctions had failed to change the course
of Myanmar politics, and that America's inattention to the Southeast
Asian country was making Myanmar a virtual Chinese client state. To
reverse U.S. policy toward Myanmar, over the past seven years, the White
House has indeed relaxed sanctions on the country, appointed
ambassadorial level representation to Myanmar (the United States had an
embassy in Myanmar, but it had been led by a charge d'affaires),
launched new aid programs in Myanmar, and even considered restoring
military ties down the road.

The Obama administration sees Myanmar as a success story, and one in
which the United States played a major role in the transition. Now, it
apparently sees U.S.-Myanmar relations as a model as well. As Hillary
Clinton notes in her memoir Hard Choices, the administration believes
that it played a central role in pushing the Myanmar generals to move
toward elections, and that the rapprochement with Myanmar was an example
of U.S. diplomacy and soft power at its finest.

A recent Washington Post article effectively summarized administration
views on U.S.-Myanmar relations and how they could be a model for
relations with Cuba. "There are important similarities" between the
White House's approach to Cuba and its approach toward Myanmar, the Post
reported. U.S. deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes told the Post
that in both cases the White House was breaking from years of isolating
these nations, and that the administration would set the foundations for
a new relationship to be built over generations.

Source: Asia Unbound » Is Myanmar the Model for Cuba's Reforms? -
http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2016/03/09/is-myanmar-the-model-for-cubas-reforms/