Quotes of the Day

Over soy lattes and buttery-soft muffins, I sat down in a coffee shop a few weeks ago with one of Washington's savviest Asia activists. Through endless networking and tireless advocacy, she has helped keep Burma's human-rights abuses on Washington's radar, even though the country has little strategic significance to the U.S. During the George W. Bush Administration, she exuded confidence. Now she's anxious. Barack Obama's government has taken a close interest in Burma, but not the sort she wants. On a trip to Asia in February, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the White House would review its policy toward Burma. My friend fears that the Obama Administration might move toward some kind of compromise with the junta, possibly even lifting sanctions. "You have the whole community of engagers coming out of the woodwork now," she says. "They see an opportunity; they haven't had one in years."

Burma is not the only country in Southeast Asia to draw the attention of the new U.S. Administration. While other recent American Presidents pretty much ignored the region, Obama has made it a priority because his government sees Southeast Asia as a place where Washington can pick up some quick goodwill. Clinton made her first overseas trip to Asia and since then she has built a team of Southeast Asia experts who include nominated Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, a longtime Washington power player who lobbies in particular for stronger ties with Singapore and Australia. It's not just a matter of engagement. As with its actions and statements elsewhere, the Obama Administration is displaying flexibility and pragmatism in its dealings with Southeast Asia — not the ideological approach espoused by the Bush White House. These fresh initiatives promise, however, not only to be different but, in some cases, controversial.

During the Bush years, senior officials paid about as much attention to Southeast Asia as to New Orleans' levee system. Policymakers would jet into Singapore to take in a couple of days of private meetings with local officials, then return to Washington never having set foot in regional giants like Indonesia. And when the White House did attend to Indonesia or Malaysia or Thailand, it usually focused only on talking to the élite, or about counterterrorism. Now, with Indonesia, which is proving to be Southeast Asia's most vibrant democracy, the Obama Administration sees an opportunity to build a wider relationship while riding the President's popularity in the country, where he spent some of his childhood years. This strategy would involve not just the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono but the Indonesian people through greater interaction among students, academics and opinion leaders in the two nations.

With other countries in Southeast Asia, too, the new Administration has shown itself willing to question years of received wisdom. While Laura Bush condemned the Burmese junta, the Obama Administration has held relatively high-level talks with the country's leadership — in March, Stephen Blake, the State Department's director of Southeast Asian affairs, met Foreign Minister Nyan Win in Naypyidaw. Condoleezza Rice would skip ASEAN's Regional Forum, and the Bush Administration refused to sign ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. The treaty is pretty innocuous — it merely pledges signatories to uphold a zone of peace in Southeast Asia. But the Bush Administration objected to Burma's membership in ASEAN and was averse to signing anything (remember the Kyoto Protocol). In contrast, as with Kyoto, the Obama Administration says it will consider signing the ASEAN treaty.

But the Obama Administration is fielding fire, too, ironically from groups on the left. Burma is one particularly sore point; another is Clinton's comment that pressing Beijing on human rights "can't interfere" with policy on a number of global crises, like climate change, where cooperation with China is vital. This appears to be part of the Administration's strategy to emphasize rights where it can make real progress, and not just for rhetoric. But in the past, activists say, they expected new Presidents to talk tough on rights first and then, if necessary, throttle back. Obama, they complain, has sold out on the opening gambit.

Still, at least Southeast Asia is no longer off the U.S.'s map. Issues in the region are not as pressing or as vital to American interests as they are in, say, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But precisely because they aren't, Southeast Asia is where Washington can win easy points at a time when it needs as many as it can score.

• Joshua Kurlantzick