Bloggingheads and Obama’s visit to Burma

On Monday, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma. It was just the latest in a series of hurdles Burma has crossed over the last fifteen months on its journey from a pariah state to a darling of investors, NGOs, and aid organizations: this week the U.S. government announced $170 million in ...

On Monday, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma. It was just the latest in a series of hurdles Burma has crossed over the last fifteen months on its journey from a pariah state to a darling of investors, NGOs, and aid organizations: this week the U.S. government announced $170 million in aid for the country over the next two years. In the latest installment of Foreign Policy's collaboration with Bloggingheads, I interviewed Min Zin, an exiled Burmese journalist now at University of California, Berkley and FP contributor, to discuss how the Chinese lost Burma, what the lifting of censorship means for local journalists, and how to deal with the fact that Burma's fearsome military still runs most of the country.

On Monday, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma. It was just the latest in a series of hurdles Burma has crossed over the last fifteen months on its journey from a pariah state to a darling of investors, NGOs, and aid organizations: this week the U.S. government announced $170 million in aid for the country over the next two years. In the latest installment of Foreign Policy’s collaboration with Bloggingheads, I interviewed Min Zin, an exiled Burmese journalist now at University of California, Berkley and FP contributor, to discuss how the Chinese lost Burma, what the lifting of censorship means for local journalists, and how to deal with the fact that Burma’s fearsome military still runs most of the country.

Isaac Stone Fish is a journalist and senior fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S-China Relations. He was formerly the Asia editor at Foreign Policy Magazine. Twitter: @isaacstonefish

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