Wednesday, October 30, 2024
3:00–4:30 pm HST | 9:00–10:30 pm EDT
Online Event
On Wednesday, October 30, 2024, Scot Marciel (Visiting Fellow, Stanford University) discussed his recent book Imperfect Partners: The United States and Southeast Asia. Imperfect Partners is a unique hybrid – part memoir, part foreign policy study of US relations with Southeast Asia, a critically important region that has become the central arena in the global US-China competition. From the People Power revolt in the Philippines to the opening of diplomatic relations with Vietnam, from building a partnership with newly democratic Indonesia to responding to genocide in Myanmar and coups in Thailand, Scot Marciel was present and involved. His direct involvement and deep knowledge of the region, along with his extensive policymaking work in Washington, allows him to bring to life the complexities and realities of key events and US responses, along with rare insights into US foreign policy decision-making and the work of American diplomats in the field. The discussion on this book was moderated by Kevin Woods (Research Fellow, East-West Center).
Scot Marciel is Oksenberg-Rohlen Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, affiliated with the Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. A retired diplomat, Marciel served as US Ambassador to Myanmar from March 2016 through May 2020, leading a mission of 500 employees during the difficult Rohingya crisis and a challenging time for both Myanmar’s democratic transition and the United States-Myanmar relationship. Prior to serving in Myanmar, Ambassador Marciel served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific at the State Department, where he oversaw US relations with Southeast Asia, and as US Ambassador to Indonesia. Marciel is a career diplomat with 35 years of experience in Asia and around the world. In addition to the assignments noted above, he has served at U.S. missions in Turkey, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Brazil and the Philippines, and he has held numerous positions at the State Department in Washington.
Kevin Woods is a research fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai’i, working as an environmental social scientist in mainland Southeast Asia. For many years, he has been a senior policy analyst at Forest Trends in Washington, DC, where he has co-managed their Myanmar program on land and resource governance decentralization, customary land rights, and political federalism. He is also an adjunct associate professor at the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Dr. Woods has been professionally trained at Yale University and received a PhD from UC Berkeley as a political ecologist and human geographer, with a focus on land and natural resources, ethnic-based armed conflict and rebel governance.
This event was cosponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.