The Generals and Aung San Suu Kyi...New Government Moves Cautiously on Economic Reform...Building a New Peace Architecture...Rebuilding the Neglected Health Care System...Addressing Communal Conflict in Rakhine...Myanmar and the United States...Next Steps in U.S. Policy toward Myanmar..... "Five months after Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) swept to power in Myanmar in April following their stunning landslide victory in the November 2015 national elections, the new government is still very much in transition. Although the military that ran the country for 50 years did its best not to turn over the top slot to Aung San Suu Kyi, the country?s leading generals appear to be trying to prove they can play ball with the new largely civilian government. It will now be up to Aung San Suu Kyi to push forward the reforms that former president Thein Sein launched in 2011. The Myanmar she is leading today is a better place than it was six years ago when the military freed her from house arrest, launched peace talks with ethnic armed groups, and mounted tentative economic reforms. It is a much freer country that has expanded its foreign ties far beyond its one -time patron China, which the military junta heavily depended on for investment and military equipment. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) between May 29 and June 4 organized a delegation to Myanmar to evaluate the country?s political and economic transition, the peace process with the country?s ethnic armed groups, the situation of Muslims in Rakhine State, the health care system, and role of the United States in supporting reform and development. CSIS?s Southeast Asia Program and the Global Health Policy Center jointly organized the trip, which included several senior congressional staff. The delegation visited Yangon, Naypyitaw, and Rakhine State, and met with senior Union government officials, parliamentarians, Rakhine State officials, internally displaced persons in camps near Sittwe, U.S. Embassy officials, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, business representatives, journali sts, and scholars and activists. This report is a summary of the group?s observations and findings. It was obvious to the group that the new government still faces daunting tasks on the road to democracy and its success is by no means assured. One of its biggest challenges is trying to hammer out a peace deal with the country?s roughly two -dozen ethnic armed groups that have fought the central government since the 1950s. Another challenge is achieving harmony between the country?s majority Buddhists and minority Muslims, particularly in Rakhine State, and forging a nation from a patchwork of different ethnic and religious groups that never worked together before. The country?s majority Burman population is highly enthusiastic that Aung San Suu Kyi has assumed power, and most ordinary Burmans seem convinced that she can somehow magically fix the country?s longstanding challenges. Meanwhile, many among the ethnic minorities, who make up roughly a third of the population, are concerned that their grievances and interests will continue to be neglected under the new government. A third task is promoting inclusive economic growth in a country where most of the wealth was long controlled by a small military -backed elite and the infrastructure is woefully dilapidated and overextended. A fourth is reducing the outsized role of the military in controlling the government and the economy. Aung San Suu Kyi and her party are wildly popular, but because they have never run a government before, they are still figuring out how to craft and implement policies. All decisions seem to go to Aung San Suu Kyi, who assumed the newly created position of state counselor because her route to the presidency was blocked by the military -drafted 2008 constitution, which bars individuals with foreign family ties from the highest office. So far the newly minted leader tends to be a bit of a micromanager and not a great consulter, resulting in considerable gridlock across various government agencies. She also acts as her own spokesperson, which means the new government has been slow in effectively communicating and marketing its policies..."