HONOLULU (June 23) - More than 20 graduates of an East-West Center-administered scholarship program for accomplished young scholars from Pacific island nations are back in Hawai‘i this week to attend a special seminar on addressing issues and envisioning futures in the region.

The former students are all graduates of the United States-South Pacific Scholarship Program (USSP), which is funded by Department of State and administered by the East-West Center. Among the attendees are graduates who are now working in public health, communications, finance, planning, education, government, scientific research and more. Participants have travelled from as far away as the UK, Norway and across the Pacific to attend the seminar.

HONOLULU (June 25) – The Mayor of Hiroshima, the Honorable Tadatoshi Akiba, will commemorate 50 years of the sister-city relationship between Hiroshima and Honolulu at a special luncheon presentation on Wednesday, July 8.

In addition to the mayor’s presentation, there will be Japanese musical entertainment and a special photo exhibit centering on Sadako Sasaki, the young Hiroshima atomic bombing victim who famously folded 1,000 cranes for peace before she died from radiation-induced leukemia.

HONOLULU (May 29) - A group of 20 undergraduate scholars from Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji and Papua New Guinea are currently in Hawai‘i participating in an innovative environmental leadership development program. The program is designed to foster a greater understanding of the U.S. environmental movement and aid in the development of sustainable pathways to environmental stewardship.

HONOLULU (April 16) -- This year’s annual, student-organized Indonesian Conference and Cultural Event (ICCE 2009) will be held on Friday April 24, from 2 - 9 p.m. at the East-West Center’s Hawaii Imin International Conference Center. Admission to the conference and cultural celebration is free and open to the public.

The topic for this year is ‘A Decade of Reform 1998-2009’; looking at changes after the end of the Soeharto regime in 1998. The underlying force guiding these changes has been a spirit of reformation promising democracy, equity and justice among Indonesia’s people. However, after a decade of reform, Indonesia’s ability to provide equal democratic rights and access to every citizen has still been questioned.

HONOLULU (March 17) -- In its continued support of the East-West Center, the Freeman Foundation has awarded a $140,000 grant to the Asian Studies Development Program (ASDP). This is the fourth grant that the Freeman Foundation has awarded to the ASDP, totaling over $2.7 million, since 1996.

The ASDP is a joint effort of the East-West Center and the University of Hawai‘i “to educate educators--that is, to promote literacy on Asian cultures and contemporary issues, and to prepare American educators to bring Asia into the classroom,” states ASDP Co-Director Roger Ames.

HONOLULU (Feb. 10) -- More than 175 graduate students from 63 universities in 27 nations are set to gather this week at the Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center in Honolulu to present their research at the East-West Center’s 8th annual International Graduate Student Conference. The interdisciplinary gathering, planned and organized by EWC students, is the largest of its kind worldwide. All conference sessions are free and open to the public, with the exception of meals and receptions.

 

HONOLULU (Feb. 27) -- A delegation of election observers coordinated by the East-West Center in Honolulu has begun arriving in the Federated States of Micronesia to act as official monitors for the FSM national congressional and Chuuk state elections on March 3. Some 20 observers from a variety of countries in the Asia Pacific region will be participating in the monitoring project, which will focus on learning about local election processes and promoting their integrity and legitimacy.

Among the observers is expected to be U.S. congressional Rep. Eni F. H. Faleomavaega of American Samoa, along with a number of other prominent scholars and diplomats. Teams of observers and translators will be stationed at a number of key polling and vote tabulating locations in Pohnpei, Chuuk and Yap.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 10) – It’s well known that Asia has key relationships with the United States in a variety of important measures, including overall trade, U.S. exports, immigrant populations, international students and more.
For example:

HONOLULU (Oct. 20) – Groups of educators from Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia will be spending the next two weeks visiting schools in 11 U.S. states as part of an East-West Center program designed to foster mutual understanding between the United States and Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world.

HONOLULU (Oct. 30) – The application deadline for the East-West Center's Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) – widely regarded as the premier leadership education program in the Asia region – is December 1, 2008. 

Application forms and detailed information about the program are available on the APLP website.

The APLP is a nine-month graduate certificate program with a minimum five-month residency in Honolulu, Hawaii. The program combines the development of regional expertise with the cultivation of individual leadership capacity.

HONOLULU (Sept. 29) – East-West Center President Dr. Charles E. Morrison will speak on “U.S.-Asia Policy in Transition” at a luncheon meeting of the Friends of the East-West Center on Thursday, Oct. 2, at the Halekulani Hotel’s Hau Terrace, 2199 Kalia Road.

Dr. Morrison will review critical issues, challenges and opportunities in U.S. relations with the Asia-Pacific region as we face an election and new U.S. leadership. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Cost for the luncheon is $36, inclusive of service charge, tax and parking. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m., with the luncheon program commencing at noon. To make a reservation, contact (808) 944-7111/ 944-7691, or Friends@eastwestcenter.org .

HONOLULU (Sept. 30) -- Nearly 500 scholars, officials, educators and business leaders will gather in Bali November 13-15 for an international conference on the theme of "Building an Asia Pacific Community: Unity in Diversity."

Conference sessions will cover current regional issues, including international relations, security, democracy and Islam, global warming, volunteerism, gender issues, innovation, health, business, and social and cultural issues.

Among the featured speakers will be the new governor of Bali; Indonesia’s ministers of trade, people’s welfare and women’s empowerment; the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia; the governor of Hawaii; the president of the East-West Center; and business leaders.

HONOLULU (July 7) – The East-West Center (EWC) received a grant of 450 million Korean won (approximately $435,840 U.S. dollars) as part of an agreement to conduct collaborative research activities with the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI), South Korea’s national think-tank on energy policy.

The joint project, “Energy Security in the North Pacific,” stems from the Korean government’s newly launched program to strengthen Korea-U.S. relations and establish a partnership on energy diplomacy.  The collaboration between the EWC and KEEI supports that goal by improving the networking and research cooperation between the two countries, assisting in the development of an Asia Pacific energy security framework, and contributing to the design of Korea’s energy security strategy.

HONOLULU (June 16) – The East-West Center (EWC) was awarded a three-year contract from NASA for a projected total of $826,639 to determine the effects of the explosive expansion of rubber cultivation in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia (MMSEA) on regional water and carbon dynamics.
 
"Hydrologic change within this region, which comprises approximately half of Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province, could have serious consequences for the approximately 200 million inhabitants of mainland Southeast Asia’s lowlands and for the climate of monsoon Asia,” according to Jefferson Fox , East-West Center Senior Fellow, and member of the team heading up the project.

SINGAPORE (May 30) -- Inflation in the Asia Pacific is set to rise sharply this year in the face of increased oil and commodity prices, contributing to a substantial downward revision in the overall economic growth forecast for the region, according to a report released today by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).

HONOLULU (June 12) – The Chief Justice of Indonesia’s Supreme Court has signed a formal agreement with the East-West Center in Honolulu and the War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley to expand the human-rights training that the two institutions have been providing to Indonesian law officials for several years through their joint Asian International Justice Initiative.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed at the East-West Center on June 6 details a five-year commitment to conduct training programs for Indonesian judges, prosecutors, police and the National Human Rights Commission in order to “improve knowledge of human rights standards and how they can be implemented and applied by key judicial actors to promote the rule of law and the effectiveness of human rights courts and investigations.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 25, 2008

Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
East-West Center
808-944-7204
ferrard@eastwestcenter.org

Symposium Registration:
Stella Kolinski, 944-7583
kolinsks@eastwestcenter.org

Native Hawaiian cultural specialist Ramsay Taum will be the recipient of this year’s Transformational Leadership Award at a free symposium on “Transforming Leaders and Sustainability,” to be presented on Saturday by the East-West Center Leadership Certificate Program.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
East-West Center
808-944-7204
ferrard@eastwestcenter.org

HONOLULU (April 30) -- Zacarias Albano da Costa, Foreign Affairs Minister of Timor-Leste (East Timor), will participate in a free public panel discussion at the East-West Center on the morning of Monday, May 5, along with U.S. Ambassador to Timor-Leste Hans G. Klemm, and Constâncio C. Pinto, acting Chargé d'Affaires of Timor-Leste’s embassy in the U.S.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
Phone: (808) 944-7204
Email: ferrard@EastWestCenter.org
 

HONOLULU (March 19) – The East-West Center’s Board of Governors has re-elected one of its members, the Hon. Tun Daim Zainuddin, to another three-year term. At a meeting on Feb. 29, the board members unanimously elected Daim to his third term on the board, which will extend until March 2011.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
East-West Center
Phone: (808) 944-7204
Email: ferrard@EastWestCenter.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jan. 25, 2008

Media Contact: Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
Phone: (808) 944-7204
Email: ferrard@EastWestCenter.org

February 10-March 30, 2008
East-West Center Gallery, Honolulu
Presented by the East-West Center Arts Program and the Fowler Museum at the University of California-Los Angeles

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
East-West Center
Phone: (808) 944-7204
Email: ferrard@EastWestCenter.org

American and Asian Journalists to Focus on Issues
in the U.S. and among Asia’s Muslims

HONOLULU (Dec. 19, 2007) -- The East-West Center is accepting fellowship applications from Asian and American journalists who want to learn more about the United States and Muslims in Asia.

The Senior Journalists Seminar, a travel-and-dialogue program, will take American journalists to Kolkata (Calcutta), India and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

HONOLULU (Nov. 1) — The application deadline for the East-West Center’s Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) is December 1, 2007. Application forms and information on fellowship opportunities are available on the program’s website at www.eastwestcenter.org/aplp .  Eligible candidates for the APLP include exceptional early to mid-career professionals and mature graduate students with high leadership potential from all sectors (government, business, NGOs, media, etc.) across the globe. Applicants must have a four-year bachelor’s degree or its equivalent.

HONOLULU (September 17) – Mary Townswick has taken up her new duties as visiting fellow and diplomat-in-residence at the East-West Center (EWC). Townswick, a 20-year veteran of the U.S Foreign Service, will serve in her new post until July 31, 2008. Townswick replaces Michael Yoder, also a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, as the EWC's diplomat-in-residence.

HONOLULU (October 4) –  The East-West Center’s (EWC) Asian International Justice Initiative Coordinator, Michelle Staggs, will speak about human rights challenges at U.N./local government partnered courts in Sierra Leone and Cambodia at an EWC evening forum on Wednesday, October 10. She will address the issue of inter-generational accountability 30 years after the Khmer Rouge period, as Cambodia prepares to confront the darkest part of its recent history.

HONOLULU (September 13) --  The East-West Center (EWC) teams up with Sports Marketing Japan to launch its inaugural East-West Sports Summit held from November 7-9 at the EWC’s Imin International Conference Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Designed for sports marketing executives, media professionals, and others working in sports-related enterprises in government, NGO, and business sectors, this conference brings together the industry’s top leaders in the field to discuss the changing dynamics of sports markets in the Asia Pacific region.
 

Dr. Allen Clark
Senior Fellow, Research Program
East-West Center

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
7:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.
Bank of Hawai‘i Main Branch Executive Dining Room 6th floor  

• The presentation is open to news coverage.

  To attend,or arrange for an interview, contact Karen Knudsen, Director of External Affairs, East-West Center at 944-7195 or knudsenk@eastwestcenter.org

• Attendance is by invitation. Bank of Hawaii sponsors the East-West Center AsiaPacific Breakfast Briefings.  Attendees are members of the EWC Foundation and other invited business and community leaders.

HONOLULU (August 21) – The East-West Center (EWC) was awarded a contract for $98,679 under a USAID Cooperative Agreement with Family Health International, to provide technical support for Vietnam’s HIV national estimates and projections project for 2007 and to extend the on-going Analysis and Advocacy (A2) project to Haiphong.
 
"The East-West Center’s collaboration with A2 project partners in Vietnam over the past two years has led to positive changes in the Ho Chi Minh City action plan for AIDS, which in turn strengthened the local response.  The team is now looking to streamline the process in order to replicate it in other sites,” according to Tim Brown, East-West Center Senior Fellow, and member of the team heading up the project.

It may appear to be small and simple, but the pavilion plays an important role in the daily life of the people of South and Southeast Asia. Be it a Royal sala in Thailand, a rural bus stop in India, or simply a welcomed shelter and sanctuary from the relentless hot summer sun or cool monsoon rains, throughout the region the pavilion is held in high esteem.

Sunday, April 22, from 2 to 3 p.m., the East-West Center Gallery will present a comprehensive look at this much-overlooked structure and its role in regional culture. Dr. Kazi K. Ashraf, associate professor at the School of Architecture at University of Hawaii-Manoa, will take gallery-goers through the world of the pavilion from its fundamental function to its ornamental glory.

HONOLULU (March 7) — The infant years of the twenty-first century have seen a rapid acceleration in economic growth and political power in the Asia Pacific region. Mark Borthwick, director of the U.S. Asia Pacific Council at East-West Center Washington, takes an intelligent and at times entertaining look at the region in the recently published third edition of his seminal work Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia (Paperback, $55, published by Westview Press).

High-level speakers offer differing views at U.S. Asia Pacific Council conference

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 26, 2011) -- The pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, could serve as a vital stepping stone to a broader regional trade agreement, said key Asia-Pacific trade ministers who addressed the 8th annual U.S. Asia Pacific Council Conference on May 23. But they warned that the TPP will not realize this potential if trading nations abandon all efforts to conclude the World Trade Organization’s long-stalled Doha Round of negotiations.

In contrast, U.S. trade policymakers who addressed the conference were skeptical about the viability of the Doha process but quite bullish on the TPP.

HONOLULU (April 8, 2011) -- Climate change experts will gather in Taipei, Taiwan, April 11-13 for an international conference on managing climate change risk in Asian coastal cities. Conference registration is open to the media and members of the public. For more information, click here .
The Second International Conference on Cities at Risk: Building Adaptive Capacities for Managing Climate Change Risks in Asian Coastal Cities (CAR II), will be held at Taipei’s Academy of Sciences. The conference is a part of an ongoing multi-year effort titled “Cities at Risk,” which aims to reduce risks and vulnerabilities of Asian coastal cities due to climate change and urban growth.
Among the topics to be addressed are: