Maya Soetoro-Ng, daughter of Ann Dunham, shares insights about her mother's handicraft collection.The mother of President Barack Obama, EWC alumna S. Ann Dunham (1942-1995), is recognized in her own right for her outstanding work in anthropology, which focused on the small craft industries in Indonesian villages. “This exhibit shows how much she really valued the labor of the people,” noted EWC Curator Michael Schuster.

By M. Osman Siddique
Member, EWC Board of Governors 

Note: This commentary originally appeared in Singapore's Straits Times on Dec. 23, 2011.

As President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently observed, a major focus of American attention in the coming decades will be to expand and deepen American relationships with the Asia-Pacific region. Approximately 40 per cent of America’s export earnings are generated in Asia, and the region is poised to be the United States’ fastest growing market. The economic growth in Asia is shifting the overall architecture of the global economy – and the U.S. must play a decisive role in shaping Asia’s direction and significantly increase America’s participation in this new global economy.

As part of his recent visit to Hawai’i, the Dalai Lama participated in an April 15 panel discussion with Native Hawaiian cultural leaders Nainoa Thompson and Pualani Kanahele at EWC’s Hawai’i Imin International Conference Center. The private event was organized by the Hawai’i Community Foundation through a grant from the Omidyar Ohana Fund.
Photo: PillarsofPeaceHawaii.org.

On April 29, the Government of Japan conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays on EWC Adjunct Project Specialist Robert Toshio Nakasone in recognition of his contributions to the promotion of friendly relations and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.

EWC Obuchi Project Specialist Robert NakasoneNakasone founded the Hawaii Uchinanchu Business Group in 1993, and later went on to establish the Worldwide Uchinanchu Business Association in 1997, expanding the network to 22 chapters around the world.  In doing so, he successfully brought together global entrepreneurs and small Okinawan-ancestry business owners, promoting not only U.S.-Japan exchanges but exchanges worldwide.

SUSI participants from Southeast Asia present their eco-solutions at the EWC.As part of the five-week SUSI institute (Study of the U.S. Institute for Student Leaders on Global Environmental Issues), the East-West Center recently hosted a showcase of student-generated solutions for local environmental problems. The ‘Gallery of Eco-solutions’ focused on four themes: sustainable agriculture and food security; waste management; watersheds; and climate change and energy.

Governor and Mrs. Ariyoshi with Rick Tsujimura, EWC Board of Governors' Chairman, at the EWC award banquet.The East-West Center honored the Honorable George R. Ariyoshi, former Governor of the State of Hawai'i, with the presentation of the Asia Pacific Community Building Award for his dedication to strengthening the bonds of understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Award recognizes outstanding leaders whose vision and professional and personal accomplishments exemplify the mission of the East-West Center.

By Edward J. Shultz

(Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Oct. 16, 2012)

The recent eruption of protests throughout the Muslim world points once again to the stability of our globe being threatened by people with the intransigence of fundamentalists. It was fundamentalists in the United States who produced a reprehensible video vilifying the Islamic faith, and it was fundamentalists throughout the world who took to the streets to protest this affront to their faith and culture. In East Asia we are witnessing a somewhat similar escalation of tensions as fundamentalists in China, Korea and Japan push these three countries down an increasingly volatile path leading to growing animosities. And regrettably this is a verbal slugfest among U.S. allies and friends.

APLP fellows gather with the White House social media team.On the first day of their Washington, D.C. field study, EWC’s Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) fellows met with the White House Office of Digital Strategy (a.k.a. the Twitter Team). They discussed how for the first time, a U.S. President is using social media platforms to amplify the Administration’s message and directly interact with the American public. “Being from Indonesia, this is very new for me,” remarked Ismail Sulaiman, APLP fellow and head lecturer of communications at the State Islamic College Cot Kala in Aceh.  “Of course we are online, but this is actively exchanging information with the U.S.

Ambassadors Thomas Armbruster (Marshall Islands) & Helen Reed-Rowe (Palau), with PIDP Co-Director Sitiveni Halapua. On April 4, 2013 the U.S. ambassadors to the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands participated in an informal discussion at the East-West Center intended to launch a broad-ranging conversation about the future of U.S. engagement with the freely associated Pacific island nations. Participants included policymakers, Pacific island scholars and public intellectuals. Topics included the future of the freely associated states in the regional system, migration, institution building and new paradigms for engagement. 

HONOLULU (Sept. 4, 2103) -- Graduate students from India and Pakistan participated in a two-way video conference last week as part of a cross-border East-West Center project, funded by the U.S. State Department, that brings together experts, scholars, young professionals and university students from both countries to explore development issues in critical ‘peri-urban’ areas that lie between cities and the countryside.

By Charles E. Morrison, EWC President

(Note: This commentary first appeared in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Oct. 13, 2013.)

When I arrived in Bali last week for this year’s APEC summit, my van driver asked where I was from. When I told him, his face broke into a huge smile. “Say hello to my brother,” he said enthusiastically, referring to President Barack Obama, who remains enormously popular in Indonesia where he spent several years as a child.

Two days later, the U.S. budget stalemate forced Obama to cancel his trip to the APEC meeting and the subsequent East Asia Summit in Brunei, along with scheduled stops in Malaysia and the Philippines that had already been called off.

Leadership fellows from the 2016-17 cohort of East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Program, spent a week recently volunteering their technical assistance for the Parinaama Development Foundation in India's Odisha state.

With millions of people who live in “peri-urban” areas at the edges of cities in Asia suffering from enormous deficits in basic urban services, spillover environmental impacts and weak local governments, policymakers in the region recognize the urgent need for solutions to cope with the range of issues impacting residents of these areas.

HONOLULU (Aug. 28, 2019) -- Journalism students from Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi and the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi met recently in Nepal for a two-day dialogue about cross-border media collaboration. The six Indian and Pakistani students were joined by three Nepali journalism students for the dialogue in Kathmandu, which was moderated by EWC media alumnus Kunda Dixit, Editor and Publisher of the Nepali Times.