Let me begin by stipulating my answers to several questions that have preoccupied us all over the last several years. We have debated whether any change could take place in Burma. Subsequently we debated whether any real change had transpired. Now we are debating whether enough change has taken place to satisfy us, on the assumption that we will decide the future of Burma. What nine separate trips in a little over two years have taught me are: 1) significant changes have already taken place, 2) reforms are real, and although there are certain to be setbacks, the reform trend seems likely to continue and 3) absent further changes the United States will be playing an increasingly marginal role in a fast-paced drama in which almost all other nations have dropped or suspended sanctions to take advantage of growing opportunities: ... U.S. National Interests... The questions with which we should be concerned now are: 1. Why should the US be interested in Myanmar? What long term U.S. national interests are involved in Myanmar? 2. What can the United States do now to encourage the emergence of a new, more peaceful, friendly, and democratic Myanmar?... In real estate three things determine value: location, location, and location. The same can be said of Myanmar. It is strategically situated below China, between the emerging mega-nations of Asia --- India and China. Myanmar has become increasingly reliant on China for weapons, official development assistance, and foreign direct investment. If Myanmar were to become a full-fledged client state of China, this would change the regional strategic balance. To avoid overdependence on any one nation, Myanmar officials over the past year have articulated a more omni-directional foreign policy that is equally friendly toward ASEAN, China, India, Japan, and the United States. Beneath the surface, even when the relationship with China seemed most intimate, Burmese nationalism and antipathy toward the growing number of Chinese nationals working inside Myanmar motivated the Myanmar elite (including most especially the military elite) to look outward, first to ASEAN and now to the entire outside world (including the United States). ... The United States could safely ignore more than fifty-five million people, living in a resource rich country the size of Texas, located just above the vital Strait of Malacca, as long as Myanmar was consumed by its own internal conflicts and led by a military elite that largely ignored, and was ignored by most of the outside world. As long as the outside world remained more or less uniformly willing to ignore Myanmar, the United States could afford to overlook Myanmar?s strategic and economic potential while concentrating almost exclusively on the odious qualities of the Burmese government. The world has changed. China has risen. The United States has pivoted back to Southeast Asia. Myanmar is now simply more accessible in political and economic terms than it has been for the last 50 years. Will the United States take advantage of the new opportunities or will it miss the boat?