The East-West Center community offers its deepest sympathies and concern to those affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan, as well as weather-related disasters in China and elsewhere.

“With so many in Pakistan already struggling to cope with violence, poverty and other enormous challenges, these floods create a critical situation that calls for an urgent cooperative international response,” said EWC President Charles E. Morrison. “We hope that the international community will generously respond and provide support to recovery efforts as Pakistan works to rebuild from this major disaster."

Organizations accepting donations for the relief effort include:

By Charles E. Morrison

(Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Star-Advertiser on July 1, 2010)

In 1960, the year the East-West Center was founded by Congress to promote understanding and cooperation in the Asia Pacific region, Americans largely regarded the region as significant as the secondary Cold War theater after Europe. Today, economic and resources issues dominate U.S.-Asia-Pacific relations, a consequence of the region’s rapid economic growth. Excluded from many international organizations in 1960, China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea are major voices at the G-20, the world’s premier international economic institution.

Audio : At an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and co-sponsored by the East-West Center in Washington, EWC Senior Fellow Fereidun Fesharaki discusses the outlook for global oil and gas markets after the “Great Recession.” Will growth reemerge to pre-crises levels? Will production keep up with resumed growth? What will the implications be for prices? Click here to listen.

EWC Non-Resident Senior Fellow Marcus Noland, who has done extensive economic and political research on North Korea, argues in an op-ed published in the current issue of Newsweek ’s international edition that the Obama administration and world community are unlikely to deter North Korea from staging another missile launch simply by the threat of a return to limited and “toothless” U.N economic sanctions, which have failed in the past. However, Noland writes, other, more substantive measures have previously proved more successful in dealing with the North Korean regime, including cutting off oil deliveries from China and freezing the regime’s overseas bank assets. Click here to read the Newsweek article.

(Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Advertiser on March 8, 2009.)

By Shabbir Cheema

EWC Senior Fellow

The Obama administration has placed its relationship with Pakistan at the top of its foreign policy agenda, and for good reason.

Put simply, a solid relationship with Pakistan is key to a stable Afghanistan and, in turn, national and global security.

Many of the safe havens of al-Qaida, surely the No. 1 "enemy" in the war on terror, are in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan next to Afghanistan. This is where as many as 50,000 U.S. troops will be stationed in the near future.

(HONOLULU) Jan. 9 -- Prominent Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was gunned down yesterday in Colombo, was a 1995 participant in the East-West Center’s Jefferson Fellowships for journalists. Wickramatunga, the editor of the weekly Sunday Leader newspaper, was shot by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles as he drove to work.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to Mr. Wickramatunga’s family and loved ones,” said East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison. “His tragic death underscores the courage with which so many of the international journalists who have participated in Center programs pursue their vital work at great personal risk.”

On behalf of the American Embassy, I want to welcome all of you to this very special international conference of alumni of the East-West Center…

Over many years, our Embassy has greatly valued the work of the East-West Center and its alumni in promoting international education and fostering mutual understanding. We know that Center programs build invaluable professional and personal relationships, enhance awareness and promote informed dialogue. We also know you serve the broader community. We were impressed when the East-West Center Tsunami Relief Fund several years ago generated more than $500,000 to assist with tsunami relief efforts and provide long-term support through education and research programs.

Ladies and gentlemen:

This conference is very timely. The world is now in the eye of an economic storm whose scale of destruction, if not contained soon, is comparable only to that of the Great Depression in the 1930s. This crisis can perhaps be called “the first crisis of the 21 century.”

Let us hope that we have seen the bottom of it all, and very soon the world is on the path of recovery. This crisis is global in nature. Although it was originated in Wall Street, it is the latest proof of how our world has become one, of how actions and decisions in a distant land can affect life in a different part of the world.

Terima kasih, selamat pagi, and aloha.  It is great to be here in Bali, among more than 500 fellow alumni, spouses, and friends.

On May 10, the Burmese people will vote on a new constitution, a rare opportunity for the Burmese to express their political opinions about the ruling military junta's protracted path to "guided democracy."

In the latest edition of the East-West Center in Washington's Asia Pacific Bulletin series of issue briefs on current events, Zaw Oo, professor of international development at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, argues that, while the May referendum represents a significant step forward for the Burmese political process, procedural mishaps, opacity about the language of the constitution itself, and an imminent clash between the state news media's "yes vote" and the Burmese democracy movement's "no vote" campaigns may negatively impact the referendum process.