EXPERTS ADVISORY

President Obama will host the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Feb. 15-16 at the Californian resort of Sunnylands. The agenda includes security, nonproliferation, human trafficking, climate change and the South China Sea dispute.

Experts at the University of Michigan are available to discuss the issues.

John Ciorciari is an assistant professor at the Ford School of Public Policy. His research focuses on Southeast Asia and examines foreign policy strategies, human rights and the reform of international economic institutions.

“The Sunnylands summit will be a diplomatic recruiting session, as the Obama administration tries to line up Southeast Asian support for key pillars of the U.S. rebalance—particularly the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a ‘rules-based order’ in the South China Sea,” he said. “U.S. officials rightly deny that the summit is anti-China, but their counterparts in Zhongnanhai will insist that the U.S. government doth protest too much.

“Chinese critics will not be the only source of clamor. Protests over the TPP are planned, and U.S. officials will be under pressure to address serious human rights concerns in the ASEAN region. This will require an artful touch, since the most autocratic Southeast Asian leaders are among the prime targets for a U.S. diplomatic charm offensive.”

Contact: 734-615-6947, [email protected]

Linda Lim, professor of strategy at the Ross School of Business, can discuss the economy of Southeast Asia.

“The meeting will reinforce President Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ and comes at a good time since the ASEAN Economic Community was formally inaugurated at the end of 2015,” she said. “It will serve to highlight the United States’ close ties with ASEAN, a region which otherwise tends to be overshadowed by the focus on China—even though U.S. companies have invested more in the 10 ASEAN countries than in China and Japan combined.

“The president will probably encourage the ASEAN countries which have not yet signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership to do so, as some are already inclined to. He will also reiterate the U.S. commitment to open navigation in the South China Sea. Several ASEAN countries are at loggerheads with China over its construction and territorial claims here. That said, the meeting’s outcome is probably more symbolic than anything else—but symbols do matter in international relations.”

Contact: 734-763-0290, [email protected]

Allen Hicken, associate professor of political science, is a specialist on political institutions and political economy in Southeast Asia.

Contact: 734-615-9105, [email protected]