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ix Acknowledgments The idea for this volume began in 2007 after a weeklong visit to the China-Myanmar border, accompanied by an exceptional graduate student guide/translator/interpreter recruited by Dr. Li Chenyang of Yunnan University . At the end of the visit, I discussed with Dr. Li a number of possible joint research activities. One of the ideas was a workshop on Myanmar/ Burma in Washington with a book to follow. Special thanks go to Dr. Li for his encouragement, as well as for his contributions to the October 2009 workshop and to this volume. An important next step was to find a financial supporter for the workshop , and this materialized through the generosity of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Dr. Norbert Wagner, head of the foundation’s North American office, agreed to cover a significant share of the costs. Lining up the rest of the necessary support was not as easy, and the two people who eventually rescued me were Professor Bill Wise at Johns Hopkins– SAIS and David Steinberg at Georgetown University. Bill played a critical role in hosting the open forum that followed the workshop and in obtaining funding from the CNA Corporation and the Henry Luce Foundation. David provided invaluable help in recruiting participants for the workshop and identifying the Sasakawa Peace Foundation as a source of support. An essential step at the same time was finding a Myanmar “architect” to design a program that would be comprehensive and objective. Dr. Tin Maung Maung Than, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, accepted this role and added great value to the workshop and forum. Finally, at the Brookings Institution, where special arrangements were required to host the workshop, Richard Bush (director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies), Martin Indyk (vice president of Foreign 00-0505-5 fm.indd 9 9/21/10 4:43 PM x Acknowledgments Policy Studies), and Stephen Bennett (vice president and chief operating officer) came through with the essential support. While this volume focuses on the core policy issues that participants in the workshop and forum addressed, considerable value also came out of the give-and-take among the authors, the non-author participants, and the speakers at the two events. Those tasked to lead sessions of the workshop included Jurgen Haacke (London School of Economics), Toshihiro Kudo (Institute of Developing Economies, Chiba, Japan), Ni Xiayun (China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations), Bronson Percival (CNA), Mya Than (Institute of Security and International Studies, Bangkok, Thailand ), Khin Zaw Win (an NGO leader based in Yangon), and Zhai Kun (China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations). A strong group of Washington-based participants contributed probing questions and insightful comments: Maureen Aung-Thwin (Open Society Institute), John Brandon (Asia Foundation), Priscilla Clapp (former chargé of the U.S. Embassy in Yangon), Matthew Daley (former deputy assistant secretary, State Department), Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn (Freedom House), Karl Jackson (Johns Hopkins–SAIS), Frank Jannuzi (Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff), Ilango Karuppannan (Embassy of Malaysia), Meral Karasulu (International Monetary Fund), Marta McLellan-Ross (assistant to Senator Jim Webb), Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Marciel (Department of State), Laura Scheibe (Department of State), and Frances Zwenig (U.S.ASEAN Business Council). On the evening before the workshop, at a dinner for our out-of-town participants , Matt Frei (anchor, BBC World News America) recalled his interviews of Aung San Suu Kyi in the 1990s. At lunch the next day, Friederike Tschampa (first secretary, General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, New York Liaison Office) spoke about the EU’s policy toward Myanmar. In the afternoon, we had a lively conversation with General Wesley Clark who had recently been named to chair an Asia Society Task Force on U.S. policy toward Burma. By all accounts, the highlight of the two-day program was an extended conversation over dinner with Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell—four days before his first visit to Myanmar to engage the government of Myanmar on the basis of the new U.S. policy and to reassure Aung San Suu Kyi of America’s unwavering support for the National League for Democracy based on its impressive victory the 1990 election. He was exceptionally candid in explaining the objectives and limitations of U.S. policy toward Burma, and he strongly encouraged and welcomed the comments and suggestions of the 00-0505-5 fm.indd 10 9/21/10 4:43 PM [18.119.118.99] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 11:09...

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