Southeast Asia is something of a potpourri for foreign policymakers. The region includes the world's largest Muslim-majority nation in Indonesia, booming bilateral trade, terrorism, one of the world's most repressive regimes in Myanmar, and growing Chinese influence.

The Obama administration hinted at how it will weigh these variables in July, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed a treaty with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, bringing the U.S. closer to an organization that the Bush White House largely spurned.

Use the map below to learn more about three countries in the region that will present the administration with particular challenges, and the 10-country organization that purports to represent them.