HONOLULU (April 11, 2011) -- Participants in the East-West Center’s inaugural Pakistan-U.S. Journalists Exchange began their fellowship in Honolulu last week with lively discussions on the complex U.S.-Pakistan relationship and issues facing the media in both countries. Over the weekend, the Pakistani participants left for their tour to Washington, D.C., New York City, and Columbia, Missouri, while the Americans departed for Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan. Follow the East-West Center’s Facebook and Twitter accounts for posts and news articles from the participants.

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.

HONOLULU (Nov. 4, 2011) -- EWC President Charles E. Morrison participated today in a videoconference with about 80 students and teachers at Scarsdale High School in New York, focusing on issues related to the APEC Leaders Meetings in Honolulu next week. Also participating in the discussion was Robert Koepcke, Deputy Director of the U.S. State Department's Bureau for East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

Video of the discussion will be posted soon as part of the launch of a new online school exchange program called "Open Channels," which will connect more than 60 schools in the U.S., Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere.

As the leaders of 21 economies gathered in Honolulu to take part in APEC meetings and activities, the East-West Center ramped up into high gear.  The EWC hosted three public speeches by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang, and Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak (click link to view video/transcript) and cosponsored a business symposium.Secretary Clinton p

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.

The EWC’s AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools launched the AsiaPacificEd Crossings Website and educational initiative. This online resource, established just prior to the APEC Summit in Honolulu, has already enabled more than 1,400 K-12 students and educators from 48 schools in eight APEC economies (Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and United States) to explore and connect with the Asia Pacific region. 

Lee Howell of the World Economic Forum presents the keynote address at the International Graduate Student Conference.IGSC co-chairs Apinya Jantunyarux & Asmatullah Junejo (center) with presenter Lee Howell and EWC directors and board members.

The East-West Center joins many in the international relations community in mourning the April 15 passing of EWC Board of Governors member Tadashi Yamamoto, a strong advocate of the development of a vibrant, internationalized civil society in Japan and of deepened Japanese ties with other countries.

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.

By Charles E. Morrison

(Note: This commentary originally appeared in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Sept. 12, 2012)

It may not compare to APEC or the G-20 for global economic weight, but for the Pacific island nations, the annual Pacific Islands Forum summit is the premier regional meeting. It brings together heads of the island nations (including Australia and New Zealand) with representatives of international organizations and “dialogue partners,” including the United States, China, Japan and many others. For the Cook Islands, with less than 15,000 residents, hosting last week’s PIF was a rare event made especially significant by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unprecedented stop to attend the post-meeting partner dialogue ­– the highest level U.S. participation ever.

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.

Sen. Inouye with EWC students in 2007.

The East-West Center community is greatly saddened by the passing of Hawai‘i Senator Daniel K. Inouye, long one of the Center’s most avid supporters. EWC President Charles E. Morrison extended the EWC community’s heartfelt condolences to Senator Inouye’s family and loved ones.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of a great patriot and statesman who served his nation and state in many different capacities,” Morrison said. “Senator Inouye has always been the staunchest supporter of the East-West Center, not just in Washington, but also frequently interacting with participants and alumni. We will sorely miss him.”

Taiwan Deputy Defense Minister Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang briefed an audience of international relations specialists at EWC on Feb. 27 on current Taiwan security issues, including cross-strait relations with mainland China, U.S. arms sales, regional territorial disputes and more.

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 (May 3, 2013) -- East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison met yesterday with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O'Neill, and U.S. Ambassador to PNG Walter North to discuss the possibility of PNG hosting the next meeting of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, the only U.S.-based organization that convenes summit meetings of Pacific island heads of government. EWC serves as the administrative secretariat for the PICL summits.

EWC Emeritus Scholar Lee-Jay Cho has been awarded Japan’s prestigious Order of the Rising Sun (Gold Rays with Rosette), for his contributions to “the enhancement of economic relations between Asian countries, including Japan, and the U.S., and the promotion of research exchanges in the field of demography."

With doctorate degrees in economics and demography from Japanese universities and a third Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, Dr. Cho formerly served as director of EWC’s Population Institute, as well as executive vice president and president pro tem. In the 1960s and ‘70s, he was an advisor to the governments of Malaysia and the Republic of Korea on population, human resources and urban issues, and he has long served a Chairman of the Northeast Asia Economic Forum.

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EWC environment researchers Melissa Finucane and Victoria Keener gave a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill Sept. 17 on the findings of the recent Center-led Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment, which will be included as regional input to the federal government’s upcoming National Climate Assessment. Hawai‘i Sen. Brian Schatz, who co-hosted the briefing, said that “In Hawai‘i and throughout the Pacific, climate change is not an abstract concept –it is already having very real consequences.”

Sen. Schatz speaks at the climate briefing.

Among the major concerns for Hawai‘i and the Pacific Islands that Finucane and Keener discussed are:

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.

The East-West Center community is saddened by the death of former EWC Board of Governors member Thomas S. Foley, a U.S. congressman from Washington State for three decades, speaker of the House from 1989 to 1995, and later Ambassador to Japan.  Foley, who passed away Oct. 18 at age 84, served on the EWC board from 1995 to 1997. 

The East-West Center community is saddened by news of the recent passing of the Center’s first leader, Murray Turnbull, and longtime arts and exhibits coordinator Jeanette "Benji" Bennington.

"Murray Turnbull was the father of the concept of bringing the young people of the Asia Pacific region together, and the East-West Center was established because of him," said EWC President Charles E. Morrison. "And Benji was an incredible, invaluable resource during her decades of service at the Center. She embodied the EWC spirit, and her legacy remains with us all.”

Navigating a Future for the East-West Center

By Charles E. Morrison

Keynote address at the EWC/EWCA International Conference

Naha, Okinawa
17 September 2014

The East-West Center community has been saddened to learn of the sudden passing of former Education Director and longtime community supporter Larry Smith, who suffered a fatal heart attack over the weekend, shortly after arriving in New Delhi to attend a conference.

HONOLULU (Aug. 3, 2015) -- With the Hawaiian Voyaging Canoe Hokule‘a now sailing out of the Pacific for the very first time and currently in Bali, Indonesia, for the canoe’s only scheduled Asian stop on its unprecedented worldwide voyage, a number of East-West Center participants, alumni and community members are in Bali with the canoe, or helped plan the visit.

Honolulu (October 12, 2015) – Wyatt Gordon, a current EWC degree fellow in in urban and regional planning, recently returned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he competed in Pidato Antarabangsa Bahasa Melayu , or International Malay Language Speech Championship. The first American to ever to reach the final round of this competition since it was started nearly a decade ago, he took third place overall and won a prize of $3,000 after delivering a speech in Malay on how he found his heritage through language.  The speech contest was broadcast live in front of a studio audience of several thousand people, including the Prime Minister, and was viewed by a television audience of several million viewers across Southeast Asia.

Remarks of East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison

Friends of the East-West Center Annual Meeting
Nov. 9, 2016

Thank you Puongpun, for a generous introduction. I also want to thank the Friends of the East-West Center for inviting me to speak and all of you for coming.

The East-West Center, in partnership with Yale University and the Pacific Basin Research Center, launched the new book The Evolution of Development Thinking: Governance, Economics, Assistance, and Security at the United Nations on December 15, 2016. (Watch video of the book launch.)

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.

In early 2017, staff from the East-West Center’s Asia Pacific Leadership Program partnered with the U.S. Army to help provide instruction for the Army’s Young Alaka‘i leadership development initiative, which prepares high-potential mid-career officers from across the Indo-Asia-Pacific area of operations for senior leadership positions. The program assists participants as they move from the operational outlook needed in their current roles to the more strategic mindsets required in senior ranks.

HONOLULU (July 23, 2019) -- The East-West Center community was saddened by the passing on July 14 of former EWC Vice President Wesley T. Park, who was in his eighties. A well-known Honolulu business leader and supporter of the arts, he served as the Center’s VP of Administration between 1982 and 1989.

Longtime EWC Director of Administration Ricky Kubota, who was first hired at the Center by Park as a budget analyst, remembers him as “a ‘no-nonsense’ type of guy who expected the work he assigned to be completed — no excuses. While that meant a ton of evening and weekend hours, Wesley led by example because he was in the office too.”

HONOLULU (October 22, 2019) -- The East-West Center community has been saddened to learn of the passing on October 20 of former Dean of Students and longtime Center supporter Sumi Makey. Generations of EWC alumni carry warm memories of Sumi as a caring mentor over the course of her several decades leading the Center’s student and Open Grants programs, which she helped to establish, and later as an active supporter and donor. (Read Sumi’s EWC oral history.)