Richard Magnus, Singaporean Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, gives a keynote address.More than 65 human rights and international law professionals from 18 countries participated in the Asian International Justice Initiative’s 2011 Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, which focused on issues related to the rights of women and children in the Asia Pacific region.

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 (Aug. 28, 2012) – A group of scholars, officials, educators and business leaders from more than 20 areas all over Asia, the Pacific and the U.S. will gather at Peking University in Beijing Sept. 1-3 for an East-West Center international conference on the theme of "Community Building and Leadership in Asia Pacific."

The conference will feature more than 75 substantive presentations and panels on current regional topics, including international relations, economics, environment, education, arts and culture, health, and much more.

The Honorable Hao Ping, an East-West Center alumnus and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China, will offer a welcoming address at the conference’s opening ceremony, and the Honorable Gary Locke, United States Ambassador to the PRC, will give a keynote address.

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 (May 30, 2012) – Internet information leader Google, telecom provider KT, auto manufacturer Hyundai, international relations insitution the Korea Foundation and the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre have joined the growing list of corporate and foundation sponsors of the East-West Center’s 2012 International Media Conference, scheduled for June 22-24 in Seoul, South Korea. The conference theme is “Networked News: How New Media is Shaping Stories in Asia and the Pacific.”

The 5th annual Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Human Rights will take place from 16 to 26 July 2012 in Singapore and focus on the topic of business and human rights.

The Summer Institute is a regionally based workshop held in partnership with organizations in Southeast Asia to consider key IHL and human rights issues, past and present, facing the region. Established in 2008 by the Asian International Justice Initiative, a collaborative project between the East-West Center and the War Crimes Studies Center, the Summer Institute is designed for participants working across a broad range of fields and disciplines within the Asia Pacific region or whose work has an Asia Pacific focus. Previous Summer Institute sessions have attracted lawyers, journalists, government officials, and NGO workers from more than 15 countries.

HONOLULU (July 16, 2012) – An international delegation of election observers who monitored the July 7 national parliamentary elections in Timor Leste has issued a preliminary statement congratulating the people of the that country for “an open and spirited electoral process… that generated high voter interest.”

HONOLULU (July 20, 2012) – The East-West Center and EWC Alumni Association will recognize six outstanding alumni and two alumni chapters for their exceptional accomplishments and service at the EWC/EWCA International Conference in Beijing, Sept. 1-3 at Peking University.

Recipients of the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award are:

HONOLULU, HI (August 24, 2012) — As part of a collaborative project of the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program coordinated by the East-West Center, the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP) at the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program recently published Climate Change Law and Policy in Hawai‘i, Briefing Sheet, 2012. The report chronicles Hawai'i state efforts to reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and build resiliency to climate change impacts.

“The briefing sheet outlines the great work that has been accomplished thus far; however, there is much more to be done to effectively mitigate and adapt to climate change,” says Malia Nobrega, ICAP Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Free public seminar at the East-West Center on Fri. Oct. 26
will feature Korea’s Ambassador to the U.S. Y.J. Choi
and U.S. Ambassador to Korea Sung Kim

U.S. Ambassador to Korea Sung Kim and Korea’s Ambassador to the U.S. Y.J. Choi will present a special Ambassadors’ Dialogue on key issues impacting the U.S.-Korea alliance, Fri. Oct. 26, 4:30 – 6 p.m. at the East-west Center’s Imin International Center – Jefferson Hall (across from Kennedy Theatre). The event is open to the public and free of charge. Paid parking is available on the UH Manoa campus.

Two-week New Generation Seminar for rising young leaders from the U.S. and Asia Pacific will focus on middle class issues

HONOLULU (Oct. 25, 2012) -- Eleven young leaders from nine countries have arrived at the East-West Center to begin this year’s New Generation Seminar. The group will travel together to four different U.S. cities to meet with experts on the seminar theme: “The Making of the Middle Class: Successes of the Past, Challenges for the Future.”

After gathering at the EWC in Honolulu for briefings and discussions, the group will travel to Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC for field study. The program is supported by funding from the Freeman Foundation.

Participants in this year’s New Generation Seminar include:

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. 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 15, 2012) – More than 50 teacher-trainers, officials and diplomats from nine Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries have arrived at the East-West Center for a month of intensive English-language education training as part of the new Brunei-U.S. English Language Enrichment Program for ASEAN.

HONOLULU (December 4, 2012)—The Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) today released its first report, Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts (Island Press). The report highlights the findings of more than 100 scientists and other experts who assessed the state of knowledge about climate change and its impacts on the Hawaiian archipelago and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands. The report also examines the adaptive capacity of island communities in the region.

Innovative thinkers from diverse sectors will gather in Yangon on April 26 and 27, 2013, to develop and share scenarios about Myanmar’s economic development to the year 2020 at the first Myanmar Futures Exchange (MFE). Hosted by the Hawaii-based East-West Center, the program will lead participants through a series of risk analyses and scenario-building activities to determine driving forces and game changes that will shape Myanmar’s economic trajectory. The MFE will also feature a panel discussion with local entrepreneurs and prominent speakers, including influential Buddhist teacher, author and charitable works organizer Venerable Sitagu Dr. Nyanissara. 

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 (Oct. 31, 2013) -- The East-West Center has received  funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote public understanding and dialogue about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia through the continuation of activities to monitor, analyze, and disseminate information about the tribunal proceedings.

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 (Jan. 10, 2014) – Twenty K-12 educators from South Korea have arrived at the East-West Center to begin a month of residencies in U.S. school communities in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The ROK-US Teacher Exchange Program global learning and school immersion program is coordinated by EWC’s AsiaPacificEd Program with funding from the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding under the auspices of UNESCO and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Education. Later this year, American teachers from the U.S. host schools will travel to Korea for reciprocal exchange and learning.

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.

Female Entrepreneurs and Executives from 12 Asia Pacific Nations
Exchange Ideas with Hawai‘i Businesswomen and Students

HONOLULU (July 21, 2014) – A group of women entrepreneurs and senior executives from 12 Asia Pacific countries are currently in Hawai‘i to exchange ideas with local women leaders and students on leadership skills and the global gender gap in innovation and entrepreneurship, in an East-West Center professional exchange presented in partnership with UH Manoa’s Shidler College of Business.

The 13 participants in EWC’s two-week 2014 Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar are focusing on the theme of “Women as Innovators and Entrepreneurs: Generating Job Creation and Strengthening Communities.”  

HONOLULU (July 24, 2014) – The East-West Center has announced the names of EWC alumni, volunteers and a local alumni chapter that will be honored at the Center’s upcoming international alumni conference in Okinawa. The honorees are being recognized for their outstanding personal accomplishments and service toward the Center’s mission of helping to promote better relations and understanding among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

Distinguished Alumni Award

HONOLULU (Sept. 25, 2014) – – Nicholas Manring, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, has joined the East-West Center as Diplomat-in-Residence. He will be posted at the Center until June 2015.

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 (May 5, 2015) -- The East-West Center has been awarded funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue to serve as the lead institution in the Pacific Regional Integrated Science and Assessment (RISA) program, which is designed to help island and coastal communities cope with the effects of climate change. This is the second full program award the Center has received from NOAA, and marks the program’s transition into a new phase.

The $4,099,785 NOAA grant will be shared over a five-year period by a variety of partners in the Pacific RISA program (see list below). The program was established in 2003 and is one of 11 regional RISA programs supported by NOAA across the U.S. The region covered by the Pacific program includes Hawai‘i, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau and American Samoa.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 10, 2015) -- The East-West Center has announced the appointment of six 2015 Asia Studies Fellows at the East-West Center in Washington. The fellowship provides residence of three or six months at the East-West Center in Washington to scholars and analysts who wish to undertake policy-relevant research and writing on topics of relevance to contemporary US-Asia policy, including diplomatic, politico-security, and economic issues.

The following fellows will be in three month-residencies between June and December of this year:

HONOLULU (July 13, 2015) - The Hawaii, USA-based East-West Center has been conducting three separate programs in Myanmar this summer designed to enrich English-language skills for local teachers and journalists. The programs include a media workshop focusing on journalist instruction through English news analysis, a teacher exchange designed to strengthen English instruction, and long-term teacher residencies through the Center-administrated Brunei-U.S. English Enrichment Program for ASEAN.

HONOLULU (Aug. 18, 2015) – Thanks to more than $84,000 in funding from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the East-West Center’s 2015 Senior Journalists Seminar, which seeks to improve relations between the U.S. and Muslim regions, will include more Middle Eastern journalists and, for the first time, arts and culture reporters.

HONOLULU (Dec. 15, 2015) – The East-West Center has announced the names of EWC alumni, volunteers and alumni chapters that will be honored at the Center’s upcoming international alumni conference in Manila, Philippines Jan. 15-17, 2016. The honorees are being recognized for their outstanding personal accomplishments and service toward the Center’s mission of helping to promote better relations and understanding among the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

Distinguished Alumni Award

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. (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

HONOLULU (Aug. 8, 2016) – The East-West Center has been awarded a three-year grant totaling $300,000 from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in support of the Center’s Senior Journalists Seminar media exchange program, which seeks to enhance media coverage and elevate the public debate regarding U.S. relations with Muslim majority regions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 6, 2016) -- The East-West Center in Washington will hold the first session of the EWC-Sasakawa USA  Congressional Staff Program on Asia (CSPA), this week on Capitol Hill. This bipartisan educational certificate program for Congressional staff members will cover a range of contemporary, policy-relevant topics in U.S.-Asia relations over a series of weekly sessions, featuring speakers and discussions with U.S. officials and leading experts.

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.”