Imperfect Partners: The United States and Southeast Asia | A Conversation with Amb. Scot Marciel

Ambassador Scot Marciel has distilled the experiences and observations from his 35-year career with the U.S. State Department into his new book, "Imperfect Partners: The United States and Southeast Asia" (Shorenstein APARC / Rowman & Littlefield, 2023). In it, he offers his on-the-ground account of the ups and downs of critical U.S. relationships in the region — focusing on the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia — and examines the role of ASEAN and China’s influence in Southeast Asia.

To mark the book’s release, we talked with Marciel about recent events in the region and his views on how the United States should approach Southeast Asian countries in the context of China’s efforts to sow closer ties with them.