HONOLULU (Aug. 15, 2011) – The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, has awarded the East-West Center $1,087,762 over three years to continue and expand several training and exchange programs for journalists. The award will fund the continuation of the Center’s Pakistan-U.S. Journalists’ Exchange program, which was held for the first time in April this year, as well as funding participation by Pakistani journalists in the Center’s existing multinational Jefferson Fellowships and Senior Journalists Seminar programs.

Under the overall theme of “Deepening Democracy through Media in Pakistan,” the objectives of the East-West Center project are to promote free, fair and responsible media in Pakistan to help the country cope with its political and developmental challenges and to bridge the gaps in understanding between the United States and Pakistan.

HONOLULU (Jan. 6, 2012) -- The East-West Center has received two grants totaling $970,000 from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to support the U.S.- Timor-Leste and U.S.- South Pacific Scholarship Programs over a five year period. These programs aim to develop a corps of leaders who will contribute to political, economic and social development in their home countries and strengthen relations with the United States.

“By investing in tertiary education through initiatives like these, the United States is helping to foster prosperity, good governance, the rule of law, journalistic freedom, and human rights in the Asia Pacific region,” said Terance Bigalke, EWC’s Director of Education.

Applications Now Open for
Research Fellowships in Washington, D.C.

HONOLULU (Jan. 18, 2012) -- The East-West Center has received an initial grant of $93,858 ­from the Center for Global Partnership at the Japan Foundation – renewable over three years for a total of approximately $281,574 ­– to support the EWC’s new Japan Studies Fellowship Program. The program will provide three- or six-month research fellowships for scholars and analysts from the United States and Japan to conduct policy-relevant research on issues related to the U.S.-Japan partnership, including economic, diplomatic, politico-security, social, and international topics.

Journalists from Pacific Plate countries invited to apply by March 12

HONOLULU (March 5, 2012) – The Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership has awarded the East-West Center close to $100,000 to conduct a journalism seminar focusing on disaster management and resiliency. Journalists from Japan, the U.S., China and other countries bordering the seismically active Pacific tectonic plate are invited to apply by the March 12 deadline. Click here for more information.

HONOLULU, HI (April 16, 2012) — As part of a partnership project with EWC's Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (Pacific RISA), the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP), at the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program, recently published Water Resources and Climate Change Adaptation in Hawai‘i: Adaptive Tools in the Current Law and Policy Framework. The white paper aims to enhance climate change adaptation for water resources throughout the state.

HONOLULU (Oct. 11, 2012) -- The East-West Center has been awarded $173,000 in funding to study how key climate information spreads across different sectors and countries in the Pacific islands region.

With $148,000 in funding from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and $25,000 from the Department of Interior’s Pacific Islands Climate Science Center, researchers will use the upcoming release of a major Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment report as springboard for collecting data to analyze the flow of climate and fresh water information in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands.

By tracking information flows, key hubs and isolated groups using network analysis and statistical methods, the researchers plan to map out gaps in the communication and flow of climate information, allowing future projects to focus on areas with less active research and outreach.

HONOLULU (Nov. 2, 2012) – Eight journalists from various parts of Asia have begun the East-West Center’s special U.S. Presidential Election Reporting Seminar. On the 12-day tour immediately before, during and after the election, the journalists will visit Florida, Ohio and Washington, DC to gain inside perspectives on the American electoral system and the key issues involved in this year’s presidential contest.

HONOLULU (Nov. 13, 2012) -- The East-West Center has launched a new, updated website for its interactive Asia Matters for America initiative, which provides an online hub for viewers to explore user-friendly graphical data on the importance of Asia to specific U.S. areas, and vice versa.

The revamped AsiaMattersforAmerica.org site now consolidates the broad-based original Asia Matters project with several regional modules focusing more specifically on U.S. interactions with ASEAN, Australia, Japan and Korea. Modules focusing on China, India, and Taiwan are under development, with preliminary information included on this expanded website.

HONOLULU (Nov. 14, 2012) – The priority application deadline for the East-West Center's 2013-14 Asia Pacific Leadership Program – considered the premier leadership education program in the Asia Pacific region – is Dec 1, 2012.

From August – December 2013, up to APLP 40 Fellows from around the globe will join regional specialists and leadership educators in a dynamic learning community at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii for this graduate certificate program combining the development of regional expertise with the enhancement of individual leadership capacity. All participants receive a fee-waiver fellowship valued at approximately $15,000.

HONOLULU (Nov. 29, 2012) -- The Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (Pacific RISA) has launched an updated, interactive website as a focal point for the current state of climate knowledge about Hawai‘i and the U.S-Affiliated Pacific Islands.

The improved site at PacificRISA.org serves as a hub of interactive media, publications, and tools produced by researchers at the East-West Center, the University of Hawai‘i, and other partner organizations.  Users can explore current knowledge about climate change from Pacific RISA’s interdisciplinary work in areas such as climate projections, hydrological modeling, disaster risk assessment, and legal and policy analysis.

HONOLULU (Jan.16, 2013) — The Pacific Islands Climate Services Forum to be held next week in Suva, Fiji, will feature discussion of the recently released 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) report, titled Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts.  The Forum provides an opportunity for dialogue between climate experts and decision makers, including resource and disaster risk managers and community planners, as well as government ministries and policy makers from across the region. PIRCA editors will present a summary of the report, which incorporates findings of the more than 100 scientists who assessed climate change impacts in Hawai‘i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands.

HONOLULU (Feb. 21, 2013) – In the coming year, the East-West Center is planning to conduct two of its signature media exchange programs in Burma (also called Myanmar). It is the first time the Center will be bringing its internationally recognized media seminars to the country, which has recently relaxed its former strict government censorship of the press.

In June, the Center will bring its distinguished Jefferson Fellowships program for Asia Pacific and U.S. journalists to Burma’s main city of Yangon as part of their study tour focusing on leadership changes in Asia Pacific. The journalists will have an opportunity to engage with Yangon's emerging media sector and ­– in another first for the fellowship –­ help provide professional training and regional perspectives to local journalists.

HONOLULU (May 8, 2013) – The East-West Center has received a grant of $423,975 from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health as part of a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on “Realizing the Demographic Dividend for Africa.”

According to participants at a strategic forecasting workshop held recently in Yangon, ethnic relations are likely to be one of the key drivers of change in Myanmar over the next seven years, along with the development of human capital, democratic gridlock, and the power triangle between China, India and the United States.

HONOLULU (May 22, 2013) -- The East-West Center has received $108,000 from the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy to study how local governance mechanisms can be enhanced to address natural disasters more effectively. The ICLD grant of $108,000 will fund a collaborative research project to be conducted with partner institutions in Bangladesh and China, with EWC Senior Fellow G. Shabbir Cheema as Principal Investigator.

YANGON, MYANMAR (June 25, 2013) -- Sixteen distinguished journalists from 10 Asia Pacific nations, including the U.S., are currently visiting Myanmar on a study tour, as the East-West Center brings its internationally recognized Jefferson Fellowships journalists’ exchange program to the country for the first time in the program’s 46-year history.

HONOLULU (Dec. 3, 2013) -- Five high school students and one teacher from Burma who were recent participants in the Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program at the East-West Center have won a grant of $7,000 in a project proposal competition sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, which funds the SEAYLP program.

The EWC program alumni received their award for a proposal to educate the public in the city of Mandalay about environmental issues – with a special focus on outreach to adolescents – and to decrease the amount of litter in the community through clean-ups and placement of recycling bins.

HONOLULU (Feb 11, 2014) – The East-West Center has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study land-cover and land-use change in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Over the past half-century these countries have witnessed a major shift from subsistence agrarian economies to commercialized agriculture and, in the case of Thailand and Vietnam, industrialized societies. The project will study transitions in forests, boom crops and urban areas using remote sensing data sources and socioeconomic databases for the 2000-2012 period. The project’s aim is to enhance the conceptual underpinnings of land change science by integrating aspects of global markets, land use and political ecology to explicitly link land changes to local, national and international drivers.

HONOLULU (Sept. 26, 2014) – The East-West Center is pleased to announce that former Harvard Senior Associate Dean Paul Keenan has joined Center as Interim Director of Development. His part-time appointment is for an initial period of six months, beginning Sept. 23.

“Paul has proven relationship development skills, built over his 25 years of high-level experience in strategy development, marketing and organizational behavior and design,” said East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison. “We are greatly looking forward to his contributions to our strategic planning process and working with him to increase fundraising at the Center.”   

Honolulu (Feb. 12, 2015) -- The East-West Center has been awarded a grant of  $267,186 from the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership for a three-year dialogue and travel-exchange program focusing on community participation in long-term recovery after a major disaster. 

Participants from the cities of Kobe and Kesennuma in Japan, and New Orleans and Galveston in the United States, will share experiences, perspectives, and best practices for increasing citizen input on post-disaster policy and decision-making. 

HONOLULU (Sept. 3, 2015) – The East-West Center has received a $45,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a series of agenda-setting workshops focusing on the impact of Asia Pacific trade agreements on trade and innovation in the region.

The East-West Center New Challenges for Trade and Innovation Workshop series, headed by EWC Senior Fellows Dieter Ernst and Michael Plummer, will bring together trade economists and experts on innovation, intellectual property rights, competition law, technical standards, and industrial development from the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Current President Charles E. Morrison set to retire this summer

HONOLULU (February 29, 2016) – The East-West Center Board of Governors has begun an international search for a new president to succeed Dr. Charles E. Morrison, who has announced that he will be retiring this coming August after leading the Center since 1998. Exceptional candidates from across the Asia Pacific region and the U.S. will be considered, including residents of Hawai‘i, where the Center's headquarters are located.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, the East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. The Center serves as a resource for information and analysis through programs focusing on higher education, policy-relevant research and international professional exchange.

EWC Okinawan projects specialist Bob Nakasone
establishes $50,000 endowment in parents’ honor

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 27, 2016) -- The East-West Center in Washington has announced the appointment of four international 2016 Asia Studies Fellows, as well as the arrival of two additional visiting scholars.

The East West Center in Washington hosts a number of Visiting Fellows and Visiting Scholars each year. “The robust Visiting Fellows program in Washington, D.C. promotes the core missions of the East-West Center—education, research and exchange,” said Satu Limaye, EWC Director in Washington. “The Visiting Fellows give public presentations, cooperate with other institutions and produce outreach and publication outcomes. We welcome the new batch of visiting fellows.”

Asia Studies Fellowship Program

WASHINGTON, D.C.(May 11, 2016) - The Asia Matters for America initiative of the East-West Center today launched a new online resource, Asia Reacts, which tracks Asia’s reactions to important developments in U.S.–Asia relations during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The effort will monitor responses of Asian governments, media, and experts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 20, 2016) -- The East-West Center in Washington, cooperating with Sasakawa USA, is launching a new Congressional  Staff Program on Asia that provides Capitol Hill staff members with an opportunity to engage U.S. officials and leading experts on a range of contemporary, policy-relevant topics in U.S.-Asia relations.

The EWC-Sasakawa USA  Congressional Staff Program on Asia is a bipartisan educational certificate program that will cover issues with implications for Congressional consideration and action and for U.S.-Japan relations

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 6, 2017) -- The East-West Center in Washington has announced the appointment of four 2017 Asia Studies Fellows from across the Asia-Pacific. Selected from a highly competitive process, these scholars will engage the Washington research and policy community over the course of their three-month residencies.

The East West Center in Washington hosts a number of Visiting Fellows and Visiting Scholars each year. “The robust Visiting Fellows program in Washington, D.C. promotes the core missions of the East-West Center—education, research and exchange,” says Satu Limaye, EWC Director in Washington. “The Visiting Fellows’ give public presentations, cooperate with other institutions and produce outreach and publication outcomes. We welcome the new batch of visiting fellows.”

HONOLULU (January 19, 2018) – The East-West Center in Honolulu Hawai‘i has just published a report on the findings of the inaugural Women20 for the G20 Asia Pacific Dialogue, which was held at the Center in June. The 20-page report expands on initial policy recommendations that the participants released soon after the meeting to help the G20 address several of the most pressing areas of ongoing disparity in women’s economic status throughout the Asia Pacific region and the world.

Findings from the report will be highlighted at several upcoming international meetings on women’s empowerment:

HONOLULU (May 4, 2018) -- The East-West Center’s Board of Governors has unanimously approved a forward-looking plan to substantially recast and rejuvenate the Center’s longstanding Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP).

WASHINGTON, DC (Aug. 27, 2018) -– The East-West Center and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States have now released the newest, updated versions of the Korea Matters for America/America Matters for Korea publication and website. The booklet and corresponding state and congressional district one-page connections summaries can be accessed and downloaded online at: https://AsiaMattersforAmerica.org/Korea.

Launch Event on Sidelines of Last Week's East Asia Summit in Singapore Marks 'Asia Matters' Data Initiative's 10th Anniversary

SINGAPORE (November 20, 2018) – At a conference on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Singapore last week, the East-West Center and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, with the support of the US Department of State, launched the East-West Center’s newly updated Asia Matters for America/America Matters for Asia publication, website, and one-page state summaries highlighting the mutual business, diplomatic, security, and cultural engagement between the US and the Indo-Pacific region.

HONOLULU (April 10, 2019) -- Several former participants in East-West Center programs have been featured in recent editions of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for young entrepreneurs in Asia who are “leveraging business tools to solve the region's problems.”

HONOLULU (June 13, 2019) -- East-West Center alumnus David R. Stilwell was confirmed by 94-3 vote of the U.S. Senate today as the new U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Stilwell, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, received his master’s degree in Asian studies as an EWC grantee in the 1980s and later was an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Center.