Author: Lex Rieffel, Brookings Institution

For most Americans and Europeans, the November 7 election in Burma is all about Aung San Suu Kyi. Or more precisely, why Aung San Suu Kyi and the party she led to victory in the 1990 elections have been stopped from participating in this one.

But for people in Burma’s ASEAN partner countries and in the other major Asian powers (China, India, Japan, South Korea), the election is about overcoming more than 50 years of lousy governance. Read more…

Authors: Lex Rieffel, Brookings Institution, and Raymond Gilpin, USIP

After decades of domestic conflict, military rule and authoritarian governance, Burma’s economy could provide a viable entry point for effective international assistance to promote peace. Doing so would require a detailed understanding of the country’s complex and evolving political economy.

Burma’s civil war, unresolved since the country gained its independence in 1948, is rooted in ethnic differences and an abundance of natural resources. Sixty years of misguided policies have moved the country from being the Southeast Asian country with the brightest economic prospects at the end of World War II to ranking among the lowest in the world by almost all socioeconomic indicators. Read more…

Author: Lex Rieffel

Five Asian countries will participate in the G20 London Summit: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. The United States will undoubtedly be the most important player in the meeting, but there is a strong case to be made for Asia being the second most important. A deal for the IMF is likely to be extremely difficult. But a deal without the full support of Japan, China, and India will probably not provide the fillip to confidence that the London Summit must deliver to put the world firmly on the road to recovery.

In this article, I look at Asia’s perspective on the summit meeting and the global financial crisis, noting the core issues surrounding agreement on increasing resources for the IMF.

This article is part of the Brookings Institution‘s series on the G20, entitled ‘The G-20 London Summit 2009: Recommendations for Global Policy Coordination‘, and may be found here.