EAST ASIA SUMMIT

In keeping with his pivot to the Pacific, US President Barack Obama travels to Southeast Asia for the East Asia Summit in Cambodia. He will also make a historic stop in Burma, being first sitting American President to do so. Will the trip help to reinforce and accelerate the reform process in Burma or is the visit premature as some human rights advocates assert. Will the visit antagonize the Chinese who see America’s pivot as threat to their hegemony? What’s on the agenda at the East Asia Summit and to what extent will tensions over the South China Sea, of great importance to ASEAN nations, be addressed? Host Carol Castiel discusses this and more with East Asia specialists Patrick Cronin, Senior Director and advisor of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Catharin Dalpino, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy under President Clinton, now a visiting scholar in Southeast Asia Studies at John’s Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.