HONOLULU (June 10) – The East-West Center has received a two-year grant of $94,747 from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership to support the Japan-United States Journalist Exchange .

This 12-day exchange program, co-sponsored by the East-West Center and Nihon Shinbun Kyokai (NSK), sends six to seven Japanese journalists to the United States and an equal number of U.S. journalists to Japan to broaden the journalists’ knowledge of the relationship and challenges faced between the two countries.

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 (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)  In 2010, the East-West Center (EWC) will celebrate its 50th anniversary as a national institution created by the U.S. Congress to promote better relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States through cooperative research, education, and exchange activities.  

As part of the 50 ^th anniversary celebrations, a series of special events will be held throughout the year, including lectures, publications, and a large international conference in Honolulu during the first week of July, 2010.

To commemorate this milestone, the EWC plans to create a special promotional logo for all EWC materials and activities associated with the Center’s 50 ^th anniversary. 

HONOLULU (Dec. 23) – East-West Center Senior Fellow Fereidun Fesharaki has been appointed by U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman to serve on the National Petroleum Council (NPC). The Council is a self-funded advisory body to the Secretary of Energy whose members represent all sectors of the oil and natural gas industries and related interests.  

Jan. 18-March 22, 2009

East-West Center Gallery, Honolulu

Opening reception: Sunday, Jan. 18, 2 p.m .

Featured artist: Hideta Kitazawa, noh mask carver

Applications Currently Being Accepted

HONOLULU (Dec.15) -- The East-West Center has been awarded a three-year grant totaling $275,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation to provide renewed support for the Korea-United States Journalists Exchange program.

HONOLULU (Nov. 14) – As part of its biennial alumni conference, being held this year in Bali, Indonesia, the East-West Center honored several alumni at a luncheon today 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.

Three individuals received the Center’s biennial Distinguished Alumni Award:

 

HONOLULU (Nov. 18) -- The East-West Center (EWC) received two grants of $496,000 from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to support the U.S.- Timor-Leste   (USTL) and U.S.- South Pacific (USSP) Scholarship Programs. 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.

HONOLULU (Dec. 5) -- The East-West Center’s AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools has been awarded a $150,000 “Landmarks of American History and Culture” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to conduct teachers workshops on “ Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, and Memorial .” These workshops are co-sponsored by the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, the National Park Service, and the Japan American Society and will be held at the East-West Center during the summer of 2009. This is the fifth Landmarks grant that NEH has awarded to the East-West Center for the Pearl Harbor workshops.

HONOLULU (Nov. 13) – An international conference of scholars, officials, educators and business leaders got underway Thursday in Bali, Indonesia, with welcoming remarks by the Governor of Bali, the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia and the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare, followed by the conference’s keynote address by East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison.

The Honorable Aburizal Bakrie, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare, told the more that 500 assembled scholars, officials and business professionals – most of whom are Center alumni – that the current global economic crisis serves as a powerful reminder “of the need to improve our cooperative efforts, of our bonds together, of the common mechanisms that we can use to solve our problems.”

HONOLULU (Oct. 8) – Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador John K. Veroneau will offer an update on U.S. trade policy at a breakfast briefing on Wed., Oct. 15, at the East-West Center’s Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center (Jefferson Hall, 1777 East-West Road).

Cost for the event is $14. Registration begins at 8 a.m., with the breakfast program commencing at 8:30. Reservations are requested by Tues., Oct. 14. To make a reservation, contact (808) 944-7111, or ewcinfo@eastwestcenter.org .  For media coverage of the event, please contact Derek Ferrar at (808) 944-7204 or via email ferrard@EastWestCenter.org .

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 (Sept. 19) – Former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia Kim Beazley will speak on “Political Change and Alliance Continuity in U.S.-Australia Relations” at an Australian American Leadership Dialogue luncheon address on Wed., Sept. 24., at the East-West Center’s Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center (Jefferson Hall, 1777 East-West Road).

Ten months ago, the Australian Labor Party under Kevin Rudd defeated the decade-long conservative coalition government of John Howard.  This November, the U.S. election will bring in a new American president.  These political transitions bring a new era to U.S.-Australian relations.

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 (September 17) The East-West Center (EWC) received a grant of $350,000 from the U.S. Department of State to support a new six-week institute on environmental stewardship for undergraduate students from Southeast Asia.

The EWC, working in partnership with more than 20 organizations including the University of Hawaii’s Environmental Studies Program, Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, and the Nature Conservancy, will host and facilitate this program in May-June 2009 for approximately 20 students from non-traditional and underserved groups in the region.

HONOLULU (Aug. 29) – Four leading China-based journalists will speak on the impact and aftermath of the Olympics on China at an East-West Center luncheon on Friday, Sept. 5., at the Center’s Hawai‘i Imin International Conference Center (Jefferson Hall, 1777 East-West Road).
Speaking at the event will be:

HONOLULU (July 17) – The East-West Center provided the venue this week for the Honolulu launch of “ Making the Law Work for Everyone ,” a new report on legal empowerment of the world’s poor by an independent commission supported by the United Nations.

HONOLULU (Aug. 7) — The East-West Center Association (EWCA) recently established two new alumni chapters in Southeast Asia.  The new chapters located in Aceh, Indonesia and Dili, Timor-Leste (East Timor) raises the number of chapters in the EWCA global network to 46.

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.

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

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.

Contacts:

Jefferson Fellowships:
Ann Hartman, Jefferson Fellowships Coordinator
Tel: (808) 944-7600
Email: jefferson@eastwestcenter.org

Hong Kong Fellowships:
Marilyn Li, Seminars Specialist
Tel: (808) 944-7258
Email: seminars@eastwestcenter.org

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

HONOLULU (Feb. 7) -- Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand will be the guest of honor at the East-West Center’s annual dinner, “An International Affair,” set for Feb. 29 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Coral Ballroom.  The princess will be accepting the Center’s Asia Pacific Community Building Award on behalf of her father, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in recognition of His Majesty’s dedicated work toward the welfare of the people of Thailand.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

HONOLULU (Jan. 9, 2008) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently appointed four new members to three-year terms on the East-West Center’s Board of Governors. The new members are: Lori Forman, Microsoft director of community affairs for Asia; Theodore B. Lee, president of the Urban Land Company in San Francisco and Las Vegas; S. Linn Williams, executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer of the Mirant Corporation; and Michael K. Young, president of the University of Utah.

In addition, Rice re-appointed former U.S. Rep. for Hawaii Patricia F. Saiki to a second term on the board.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Derek Ferrar
Media Relations Specialist
808-944-7204; email: ferrard@eastwestcenter.org
Source Contact: Stuart H. Coleman
Leadership Certificate Program Coordinator
(808) 944-7229, colemans@eastwestcenter.org

HONOLULU (Nov. 14) -- A panel of Honolulu community leaders will discuss the emerging importance of social entrepreneurship in the non-profit and business sectors at the first annual Fall Service Learning Fair, presented on Nov. 17 by the East-West Center (EWC) Leadership Certificate Program.

For more information, contact:
Karen Knudsen, Director
Office of External Affairs
Phone: Office: (808) 944-7195
Email: KnudsenK@EastWestCenter.org

October 19, 2007

WHO:    Davin Aoyagi and Maria Walczuk, Hawaii High School Students who analyzed the Khmer Rouge War Crimes Tribunal on a recent EWC program in Cambodia

DATE:     Sunday, October 21, 2007

TIME:     2:00 - 4:00 PM

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.

Mark your calendar for An International Affair, the East West Center's annual dinner, on Friday, February 29, 2008 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom. The event will honor His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.  Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will represent His Majesty and receive the Asia Pacific Community Building Award in recognition of his dedicated work on behalf of the welfare of the people of Thailand.   

WHAT:   East-West Center Annual Dinner "An International Affair"

DINNER CHAIRS:  Jean Ariyoshi and Don K. Kim

DATE:  Friday, February 29, 2008

VENUE:  Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom

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.
 

HONOLULU (July 31) – The East-West Center (EWC) and the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding Tuesday (July 31) for cooperation in energy policy and planning research. The three-year agreement establishes a framework for exchange of research and joint projects.

Ki-Yual Bang, CEO and President of the KEEI, said the new agreement will “play a significant role in promoting energy cooperation through joint studies, information exchanges, and the exchange of research personnel between Honolulu and Seoul.” He added “by working jointly the EWC and KEEI can develop much needed energy policy options.”