Imperfect Partners
The United States And Southeast Asia
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Watch our interview below with Scot Marciel about Imperfect Partners. You can also read a summary news article of the conversation.
Listen to a conversation with Marciel on the Insight Myanmar podcast, below. You can also read a Mizzima News article featuring the conversation.
About the book
Scot Marciel is widely considered the State Department’s top Southeast Asia hand, the result of decades of experience working in and on the region and the key role he has played in shaping and implementing U.S. policy. He was on the ground in the Philippines during the historic People Power revolt in the 1980s, became the first U.S. diplomat to serve in Hanoi in the early 1990s, was appointed the first U.S. ambassador to ASEAN in the 2000s, and spent the last 15 years twice serving as the State Department’s point person on Southeast Asia policy, and as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and then to Myanmar during that country’s democratic experiment and its horrific ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.
Imperfect Partners encapsulates Marciel’s experiences, providing the perspective of an American diplomat who has dealt with the dual challenges of working with foreign governments and also within the U.S. government. Noting that the United States “has a history of not quite knowing how to engage with Southeast Asia,” he highlights the ups and downs of critical U.S. relationships in the region. Marciel explores not only diplomatic successes, but challenges faced, missteps made, and opportunities missed in U.S. diplomacy with Southeast Asia. His on-the-ground witness account of the normalization of U.S.-Vietnam relations is essential reading, as is his passionate analysis of the gains and the failures of Myanmar’s decade-long opening.
While China’s rise has re-injected a long-absent strategic element into U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia, Marciel warns against making China the focus of that policy. He argues that the United States can best advance its own interests—and support the freedom of maneuver of Southeast Asia—through a strategy of consistent engagement based on a positive agenda and by focusing on the region’s dynamic younger generation.
Virtual Book Talks
"What we have in this very readable book are the reflections of an eminent American diplomat on issues of particular significance for Australia as it continues to ponder how it should be responding to China’s rise, and how those responses are likely to affect its alliance with the US." — Dr. Allan Patience
Read the complete review at the Australian Institute for International Affairs >
"A new book by longtime U.S. diplomat Scot Marciel, Imperfect Partners, argues that if the United States wants to transcend its “imperfect partnership” with Southeast Asia, it will need to step up its efforts in the region viewing the region as significant for its own sake, as opposed to its relevance to other threats and challenges [...]. The book’s blend of memoir and foreign policy analysis succeeds in providing a rich and nuanced take on U.S. policy in the region. Marciel provides some details on key policy inflection points that will be of interest to Southeast Asia practitioners, experts and watchers, be it being closely scrutinized by Vietnam’s internal security apparatus while setting up the initial U.S. diplomatic presence in the country amid the normalization process in the 1990s, or what he characterizes as puzzling disinterest in communications and messaging by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi as hopes faded for reform in Myanmar in the late 2010s, which coincided with his time as ambassador there. Readers who are less familiar with Marciel’s diplomatic finesse also get a sense of how he helped advance ties in important ways, with a case in point being his literal elevator pitch that eventually saw then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pay a historic visit to the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta in 2009." — Prashanth Parameswaran
Read the complete review at ASEAN Wonk >
"Some of the most fascinating parts of the book are when Marciel shares the lessons he learned about US foreign policy and makes key recommendations of strategies policymakers should consider when confronted with future diplomatic challenges. He is not reserved about criticizing US mistakes and is a full-throated advocate for stronger US engagement with Southeast Asia as Washington’s ties with Beijing deteriorate." — Murray Hiebert
"It is rare that a diplomat or scholar can be so well-versed in a region as diverse and expansive as Southeast Asia, but Scot Marciel’s new book offers an authoritative account of this critical region’s complexities while also being an entertaining memoir of his career in the United States’ government [...] The book makes a compelling case for American policymakers to engage more seriously with Southeast Asia and provides clear guidelines for the best way to do it." — Hunter Marston
"Marciel has created a masterful overview of the diplomatic history of the US and Southeast Asia. Recognizing that US policy has not been unified since the region itself is not a cohesive unit, he argues that neither the US nor the countries of Southeast Asia were perfect partners, engaging one another based on various external and internal stimuli as they collaborated. The author relates personal experiences from his 35 years of diplomatic service in the region to illuminate the ebb and flow of US policy, making this tome part autobiography and part history. Rather than thoroughly reviewing every event, he highlights each relationship with the different countries through interweaving stories. Marciel then examines the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and how the US has worked with this weaker but still important regional organization. He finishes by discussing China's rising influence in Southeast Asia and provides thoughts on how the US can better engage with the region. Even though the book is rich with insight and thoroughly documented, readers should find it a quick and easy read because of its personal narrative style."—David Bath
"Imperfect Partners is a major addition to our understanding of the complicated relationship between the US and Southeast Asia over several decades. Part memoir and multiple parts deft analysis of the delicate art of diplomacy in a highly diverse region of 10 countries, 600 million people, the world’s fifth-largest economy, a key strategic region for global trade in China’s backyard [...], this book’s scope makes it hard to fathom why there isn’t more interest in Southeast Asia in Washington D.C." — David Scott Mathieson
"As a career diplomat, [Scot Marciel] had a distinctive vantage point as an expert on Southeast Asia within the US government regardless of the political stripes of the president in the White House. In Imperfect Partners, he brings readers through the evolution of US involvement and interest in Southeast Asia from Reagan through Trump." — Chong Ja Ian
"The former diplomat says the US needs to keep showing up and boost relations in Southeast Asia. In an area 'long skeptical of US staying power in the region, showing up consistently at the highest levels is essential,' he writes, adding that Washington needs to be a 'consistent, reliable and good partner.' Marciel is extremely qualified to write about the US and Southeast Asia. Over 35 years, he held senior Asia posts in Washington, and was ambassador to ASEAN, to Indonesia, and to Myanmar — before the calamitous February 2021 coup. His book is part-memoir and part-primer, with a background that would be helpful to potential investors or people new to Southeast Asia." — Richard Borsuk
"U.S. policymakers, including me, have struggled for years to figure out how best to work with Southeast Asia as a region. This reflects both the lack of expertise (in academia and government) about the region and the inherent difficulty of dealing with a highly diverse group of countries that has neither a powerful central institution nor a dominant member that can speak on behalf of the members."—Scot Marciel
Read the complete Q&A with Sebastian Strangio at The Diplomat >
Praise for the Book
"For the United States, Southeast Asia is one of the most important and least understood parts of the world. Scot Marciel draws on his vast diplomatic experience to bring a wealth of illuminating stories, hard-earned insights, and wise analysis to bear on a region that will help determine our capacity to deal with the most pressing issues of the 21st century. . . . Imperfect Partners is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand Southeast Asia and America’s relationship with its countries and people."
—Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor and author of After the Fall
"Drawing on his 35 years of diplomatic experience, Scot Marciel has written an illuminating survey of the United States' relations with Southeast Asia. . . . This is an excellent primer on a part of the world whose significance has grown substantially in recent years with the rise of neighboring China."
—John Negroponte, career diplomat, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the first director of national intelligence
"Ambassador Scot Marciel has written a gem of a book. His thoughtfully researched account is brought to life with fascinating insights and captivating, on-the-scene anecdotes. . . . Imperfect Partners is a must-read for U.S. policymakers, business leaders, academics, humanitarians, and everyday Americans engaging with the nations of Southeast Asia."
—Kristie Kenney, former State Department counselor and U.S. ambassador to Thailand, the Philippines, and Ecuador
"A master practitioner has provided us with a ring-side view of how our diplomats pursue American interests in Southeast Asia. This is must reading for aspiring Southeast Asia hands who want to familiarize themselves with American regional diplomacy. It’s also indispensable reading for American strategists, who will ignore Ambassador Marciel’s policy prescriptions at their peril."
—Dave Shear, former assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs and U.S. ambassador to Vietnam