Abstract

• The imposition of US economic and trade sanctions against Myanmar began in 1997 in response to control the democratic movement in Myanmar. In 2009, the Obama administration reassessed US national security and foreign policy holistically and practiced “principled engagement” with non-democratic countries to improve bilateral relations through diplomatic dialogue to advance human rights or other conditions. The US initially maintained status quo on sanctions while trying to engage the Myanmar government under this framework. Since 2010, elections led to a peaceful transition from the military government to the new quasi-civilian government. The President of the U Thein Sein government initiated a series of political, economic and administrative reforms. The reform process resulted in a substantial opening of the long-isolated country. In May 2012, the US has begun easing certain sanctions in response to the historic reforms in Myanmar. The majority of financial, investment, and trade restrictions were removed between 2012 and 2013. In July 2012, the US issued general licenses to permit the first new US investment in Myanmar and to broadly authorize the exportation of financial services to Myanmar. The intention of this policy change was to support ongoing reform efforts by the Myanmar government. In historic elections in November 2015, the NLD won a majority of the total seats in the national parliament and in most state and regional parliaments. This research attempts to explore why the US did impose the sanctions on Myanmar. It also analyzes why the US did ease the sanctions to Myanmar after 2010. Then it also examines how far reform process facilitates on the Myanmar-US relations.