No Access

Sometimes the most effective pressure comes through personal relationships. American military officials could call up the Egyptian generals they had worked alongside for years, for instance, appealing quietly and directly.

This is a ready first option because nearly every country on earth relies on one of the great powers, which will have many points of contact and a range of issues on which it can exert leverage. Even if that great power has little concern for its partner’s abuses, it may listen to other great powers, as Russia has sometimes done when Central Asian allies appeared on the verge of atrocities.

Myanmar may be an exception because of a quirk of its transition to democracy, in process since about 2010.

It was once close to China. Its leaders, feeling abused by Beijing, opened up partly in hopes of aligning instead with the West. It is currently between great power sponsors.

Western diplomats here say they have little access to military or civilian leaders, with whom they have few longstanding relationships. With scant ongoing deals that they could use as leverage, their choices are either to say nothing or to publicly condemn, which would risk ending what little access they have.