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.

Trade ministers of Australia and New Zealand will also be featured

HONOLULU (Nov. 2, 2011) – Asian Development Bank President and Chairman Haruhiko Kuroda has joined the roster of high-level speakers at the Asia-Pacific Business Symposium that will be held at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa during the upcoming APEC Leaders’ Week. Other featured speakers include the trade ministers of Australia and New Zealand, along with numerous business leaders, experts and officials from a broad range of Asia Pacific nations.

“I am a Pacific Islander too,” President says

HONOLULU (Nov. 18, 2011) -- Heads of State and special envoys from eleven Pacific island nations met with President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and other top U.S. and international officials in a special series of meetings organized by the East-West Center in parallel with the recently completed APEC leaders’ week in Honolulu, Hawai‘i.

Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga were represented. The Honorable Peter O’Neil, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, was selected as the delegation’s Chairman, with Niue’s Premier, Hon. Toke Talagi, serving as Vice Chairman.

President and his family view exhibit on his mother’s anthropology work and visit Japanese Garden 

HONOLULU (Jan. 1, 2012) – President Obama and his family paid a New Year’s Day visit to the East-West Center to view an exhibition on the anthropological field work that the president’s late mother, Ann Dunham, conducted in Indonesia. The family also visited the Center’s well-known Japanese garden.

HONOLULU (Jan. 10, 2012) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has appointed five new members to three-year terms on the East-West Center’s Board of Governors.

The new members are: UN Foundation CEO Kathy Bushkin Calvin, Clinton advisor and former USAID official Margaret Carpenter, Three Oaks Investments CEO and former White House National Economic Council senior counselor Ginger Lew, Mapleton Investments Chairman Marc Nathanson, and former U.S. Ambassador to Fiji and other Pacific island nations M. Osman Siddique.

Outgoing board members are Lori Forman, Theodore Lee, Patricia Saiki, S. Linn Williams, and Michael Young.

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.

Journalists from Pacific Plate countries invited to apply by March 12

HONOLULU (March 5, 2012) – The Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership has awarded the East-West Center close to $100,000 to conduct a journalism seminar focusing on disaster management and resiliency. Journalists from Japan, the U.S., China and other countries bordering the seismically active Pacific tectonic plate are invited to apply by the March 12 deadline. Click here for more information.

Honolulu Attorney R. Brian Tsujimura chosen to head EWC’s Board of Governors

R. Brian TsujimuraHONOLULU (March 19, 2012) – Members of the East-West Center’s Board of Governors have elected Honolulu attorney and land developer R. Brian Tsujimura to serve as the board’s new chairman. At a meeting on March 16, the board named Tsujimura to succeed Puongpun Sananikone, who had served his maximum term as chairman and will remain on the board as chair of its Outreach Committee. The board also selected Honolulu attorney Richard Turbin as vice chair.

UHM SPAS Dean Edward Shultz to head EWC’s International Alumni Association Executive Board

HONOLULU (June 20, 2012) – Dr. Edward (Ned) Shultz, Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS) at University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and Assistant Vice Chancellor for International Programs and Exchange, has been named the new president of the East-West Center’s Alumni Association Executive Board. On July 1, 2012, Shultz will succeed former UHM Asian Studies Program Graduate Chair, Dr. Ricardo Trimillos, who had served his term as president and will remain on the board as an ex-officio member.

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 19, 2012) – An international delegation of election observers supported by the U.S. Department of State and organized by the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) monitored the recent month-long general elections in Papua New Guinea. The mission included election specialists, former government officials, academics and civil society representatives from Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands and the United States. The delegation was headed by Dr. Gerard A. Finin, Co-Director of the PIDP.

HONOLULU (Oct. 4, 2012) – Former East-West Center Diplomat-in-Residence Sharon (“Shari”) Villarosa has been confirmed as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Indian Ocean island nations of Mauritius and the Seychelles. Villarosa was nominated to the post by President Obama last fall and confirmed by the Senate on Sept. 22.

Villarosa said at her confirmation hearing that she would work “to increase U.S. exports to (Mauritius’) healthy, thriving market economy,” and to “encourage Seychelles' continued progress in implementing sound political and economic reforms and protecting human rights.  … I hope that we can continue to support the efforts of Seychelles to counter piracy and promote better security in East Africa and the Indian Ocean.”

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. 8, 2012) -- For a number of years the East-West Center, with support from the U.S. Department of State, has fielded multinational election observation teams to learn about and offer suggestions for improving the ways in which elections are conducted in various Asia Pacific nations.

This year, for the first time, the Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program hosted a multinational group of election officials and journalists and during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. The program sought to provide participants with first-hand knowledge and experience of America’s national, state and local electoral systems through direct observation and interaction with a diverse range of individuals engaged in the electoral process.

The participants included:

HONOLULU (Nov. 13, 2012) -- The East-West Center has launched a new, updated website for its interactive Asia Matters for America initiative, which provides an online hub for viewers to explore user-friendly graphical data on the importance of Asia to specific U.S. areas, and vice versa.

The revamped AsiaMattersforAmerica.org site now consolidates the broad-based original Asia Matters project with several regional modules focusing more specifically on U.S. interactions with ASEAN, Australia, Japan and Korea. Modules focusing on China, India, and Taiwan are under development, with preliminary information included on this expanded website.

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 (Nov. 29, 2012) -- The Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (Pacific RISA) has launched an updated, interactive website as a focal point for the current state of climate knowledge about Hawai‘i and the U.S-Affiliated Pacific Islands.

The improved site at PacificRISA.org serves as a hub of interactive media, publications, and tools produced by researchers at the East-West Center, the University of Hawai‘i, and other partner organizations.  Users can explore current knowledge about climate change from Pacific RISA’s interdisciplinary work in areas such as climate projections, hydrological modeling, disaster risk assessment, and legal and policy analysis.

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.