US Diplomatic Myanmar Values ​​and Transition (1988-2013)

There is no scholar, whether in the country or abroad, ever did the systematicobservation on the U.S.-Myanmar relationship in the view of value-orienteddiplomacy. Nevertheless the research on the U.S.’s value-oriented policy shift towardto Myanmar, the implementation and its impacts. In this essay, the value-orienteddiplomacy should be defined as following: Refers to a country’s leaders and its people,it is the main pursuits generated from the country’s traditional culture, it is deliveredby two channels: one is the concrete entity which disseminate the core value such asthe white paper of the state, mass media and the non-governmental organizations; theother is spread through the institutional channel, such as the behavior of the head ofthe state, special envoy and files of Congress.This paper concentrates on the dedicated terms of the U.S. government during1988~2013, discussed the diplomatic policies and its impacts on the U.S.-Myanmarrelationship. In further it analyzed how culture influences the international politics, inwhat method and with what strength. It tried to conclude the influences by comparingthe differences of four administrations.There are questions that need to be answered: How did the “value-oriented”diplomacy influence the U.S.-Myanmar relationship? Which pattern did Obama’sadministration choose? In short, this essay aims to answer where the value-orienteddiplomacy come from, how did it work and what it will be in the future.Since1988, the United States reduced the attention in and implemented seriessimple basic principle of policies to Myanmar. This period could be concluded intothree characteristics. First, U.S. highly focus on “human rights”, it tried to pushMyanmar turn into a democratic country by economic sanctions and it also addedpolitical conditions for humanitarian aid. U.S. government fully focus on the NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD), it limits U.S. pursuits after Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK)and her member’s demands. However, in the evaluation of the past policies, U.S.scholars thought they did neither represent the real goal nor national interest of U.S.Obama’s administration presents three features too. Namely that Obama’s administration values the “dual-track diplomacy” and the “head to head discourse”, asa result, the bilateral interaction increases a lot after2009. Second, human rightsissues seem like no longer to be the top topic of the agenda. In addition, U.S. alsopays attention to the usage of multilateral forces in the process of engaging Myanmar.As a consequence, Obama’s new policies produced several corresponding results,such as reducing the losses of isolation, either U.S. companies or Obamaadministration could access to the reform benefits of Myanmar. Outsiders such asJapan, ASEAN also regain the opportunities to participate in the process ofMyanmar’s development. In the future, U.S. and its allies will accelerate the pace tore-embrace Myanmar.This paper holds the opinion that U.S. won’t give up the “value-oriented”diplomacy. Take the U.S. traditional culture into consideration, it will never give uppromoting its values and spread them to the world. But there is no doubt that U.S. willpromote values more pragmatically. In the long term, it is the primary to encourageand support the democratization process in Myanmar, No matter which pattern(engagement, isolation or pragmatic engagement) will U.S. pick. As Obama’sadministration clearly understand that sanctions won’t work, aid and trade won’t bringreforms too, only insist value permeate focus on the normal citizens in Myanmar, canprofoundly affect Myanmar’s reform path. It is still a long way to go, and it will needsthe support from everywhere, ASEAN, United Nations as well as IMF, everymultilateral entity as well as U.S. traditional allies will be involved and play a biggerrole in the process of accepting Myanmar back to the international society. Finally, weshould understand that “valued-oriented diplomacy” is not a derogatory or disgracefuldiplomatic means in international society. In the process of human progress, the greatpower should push and shorten the process of pursuing great dreams. As for China,we also should learn how to using the “value-oriented diplomacy”.