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.

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:

HONOLULU (June 24, 2011) -- HONOLULU (June 24, 2011) -- Dr. Nancy Lewis, Director of the East-West Center’s Research Program, has been named president of the Pacific Science Association. Lewis was elected at the organization’s 22nd Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week.

“I am deeply honored to have been elected president of the Pacific Science Association as the PSA begins charting the course towards its hundredth anniversary in 2020,” Lewis said.

Funded by the U.S. State Dept., cross-border project
focuses on ‘peri-urban’ development issues

HONOLULU (Feb. 3, 2012) – East-West Center environmental researchers have launched a new cooperative project with specialists in India and Pakistan to collaborate on studying development issues in critical ‘peri-urban’ areas that lie between cities and the countryside.

 This project “offers a rare opportunity for Indian and Pakistani researchers to work together on a shared exploration of the challenges and impacts of an issue that deeply affects both nations,” said EWC research fellow Sumeet Saksena, the project’s principal investigator.

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 (Aug. 28, 2013) -- The East-West Center has received a total of $941,440 in grants for research on environmental and economic issues affecting the Asia Pacific region. The awards include:

HONOLULU (Sept. 3, 2015) – The East-West Center has received a $45,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a series of agenda-setting workshops focusing on the impact of Asia Pacific trade agreements on trade and innovation in the region.

The East-West Center New Challenges for Trade and Innovation Workshop series, headed by EWC Senior Fellows Dieter Ernst and Michael Plummer, will bring together trade economists and experts on innovation, intellectual property rights, competition law, technical standards, and industrial development from the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Current President Charles E. Morrison set to retire this summer

HONOLULU (February 29, 2016) – The East-West Center Board of Governors has begun an international search for a new president to succeed Dr. Charles E. Morrison, who has announced that he will be retiring this coming August after leading the Center since 1998. Exceptional candidates from across the Asia Pacific region and the U.S. will be considered, including residents of Hawai‘i, where the Center's headquarters are located.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, the East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. The Center serves as a resource for information and analysis through programs focusing on higher education, policy-relevant research and international professional exchange.

The East-West Center and the National Committee on North Korea are pleased to announce the launch of a new pilot project, North Korea in the World.

For decades, American policymakers have had limited substantive information about North Korea in their consideration of U.S. policy options, with the exception of the question of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and in more recent times, human rights.

HONOLULU (March 27, 2018) – Hawai‘i Governor David Ige and University of Hawai‘i President David Lassner, along with Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology President Peter Gruss, were among the speakers at a special panel discussion yesterday at the East-West Center focusing on the critical importance of cutting-edge science and technology research in both island communities.

HONOLULU (Nov. 19, 2018) -- East-West Center researchers Abby Frazier and Keith Bettinger are among the authors of a new study published today in Nature Climate Change that provides one of the most comprehensive assessments yet of how humanity is being impacted by the simultaneous occurrence of multiple climate hazards strengthened by increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This research reveals that society faces a much larger threat from climate change than previous studies have suggested.