"The Obama administration?s initiative to review U.S. policy in six countries, of which Burma/Myanmar1 was one, was taken as a welcome sign among most observers of the Burma/Myanmar scene with the exception of those deeply committed to endorsing even more stringent measures against Naypyidaw.2 They were unrealistically fearful that the Obama administration would completely reverse the policies of the previous Republican and Democratic regimes. This was politically impossible in the United States at that time. Welcome and obvious, but modest, signals, however, had been sent by both the Americans and the Burmese that increased contacts were desirable. The Burmese foreign minister had an unprecedented meeting with a mid-level State Department official in March 2009, and the United States indicated it would consider signing (and later did) the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, which it had not done in large part because of Myanmar?s ASEAN membership, which the U.S. adamantly opposed, in 1997. The beginnings of such contacts moved the possibility of progress forward. The constraints of the domestic U.S. political scene resulted in a modified policy from isolation and regime change under both the Clinton and the Bush administrations to ?pragmatic engagement,? essentially meaning the continuation of the sanctions regimen together with dialogue at a relatively high diplomatic level aimed at the amelioration of human rights violations and governance excesses associated with the junta. In a quiet shift, ?regime change? and the honoring of the May 1990 elections swept by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) were discarded...Now, as this essay is written in June 2010, a sense of frustration over the lack of progress seems evident in both the American and Burmese camps. In Washington, there is increasing talk of even further sanctions beyond those instituted in 1988 (cutting off military sales and support, as well as the U.S. economic assistance and anti-narcotics programs), 1997 (prohibiting new investment), 2003 (denying imports and the U.S. banking system to the Burmese state), and 2008 (focusing on jade and ruby import restrictions)..."