East-West Center: East-West Wire

Obama Visit to Asia Offers Dynamic Opportunity

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:33:36 -0600

By Charles E. Morrison (Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Advertiser on Nov. 8, 2009.) This week President Obama begins his first trip to Asia as the U.S. head of state. His visit to Singapore for the annual APEC meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders and additional stops in Japan, China and South Korea offer an opportunity for the president to give further dynamism to America’s relationships with this vital part of the world. In visiting Asia, Mr. Obama has many assets...

Repression and Punishment in North Korea: Refugee Surveys Shed Light on Prison Camp Conditions

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:32:51 -0500

HONOLULU (Oct. 6) — North Korea’s brutal prison system has long played a central role in the regime’s suppression of political dissent. But a new report based on surveys of North Korean refugees reveals that the country’s penal system also appears to have been increasingly used as a means to terrorize — and extract bribes from — citizens engaging in private economic activity as a survival tactic following the deadly famine of the late 1990s and ongoing...

Pacific Islands Seek Greater ‘Ownership’ of Development Decision-Making

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:35:49 -0500

HONOLULU (Oct. 5) — Pacific islands should turn the challenge presented by the global economic crisis into an opportunity to rethink the business-as-usual development approach pursued by governments in the region, concluded a gathering of eminent Pacific thinkers who participated in a recent East-West Center workshop on the region’s responses to the crisis. The diverse group of participants talked openly and passionately about what has being going wrong in their various islands...

Challenges Ahead for Tokyo’s New Government

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:04:47 -0500

By Charles E. Morrison (Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin on Sept. 21, 2009) This past week, Japan entered a new political era as Yukio Hatoyama took over as Prime Minister at the head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the convincing winner of the August 30 elections. The long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is severely and possibly permanently crippled, and facing a leadership crisis. But it is not certain what this new era heralds or how much...

What Does Japan’s Political Change Mean for the U.S.?

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:13:06 -0500

By Sheila A. Smith (Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Advertiser on Sept. 6, 2009) Last Sunday’s historic electoral victory for the Democratic Party of Japan not only energized Japanese politics, but also renewed debate over the future of the U.S.-Japan relationship. Although the primary focus of the DPJ leadership has been on domestic challenges rather than foreign policy throughout its 11-year effort to build a viable second party for Japan - one that could challenge...

Making Sense of China’s Stance on North Korea

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:13:39 -0500

By Denny Roy (Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Korea Herald on August 25, 2009) The rise of Chinese power in the Asia-Pacific region has tested the ability of China and the United States to base their relationship on shared interests rather than on areas of strategic dispute. Dealing with the nuclear crisis in North Korea has been a test case for the stability of the new bipolar power structure in Asia. Americans generally applauded China's willingness to play a managerial role...

Assessing China’s Economic Recovery and Changing Roles in the Region

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:10:48 -0500

HONOLULU (August 25) -- China’s economy is “roaring” back, with predictions of nine to 10 percent growth next year, reflecting a “rising tide” in Asia as the region’s economies rebound, agreed a group of influential economists, foreign policy officials and analysts who gathered in Honolulu in early August for the East-West Center’s 10th Senior Policy Seminar. During the two-day seminar on the implications of the global economic crisis for the Asia Pacific...

Former Negotiator: UN Sanctions Will Bring North Korea Back to Talks

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:28:22 -0500

HONOLULU (August 19) -- A leading U.S. specialist on North Korean security issues predicts that Pyongyang eventually will return to the six-party nuclear talks as a result of stiff sanctions mandated in the UN Security Council resolution passed in June. “I think sooner or later North Koreans are going to start asking to come back to negotiations,” said former White House advisor on North Korea Victor Cha at a presentation in Honolulu. “One thing I’ve learned in studying...

Justice Miscarried: Bad Omen for Burma’s New Constitution?

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:54:18 -0500

By Priscilla Clapp (Note: This commentary originally appeared in The Honolulu Advertiser on August 16, 2009.) HONOLULU (August 17) — After a three-month trial, Burma’s democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced by a court in Rangoon to another 18 months of house arrest after already serving some 14 years in detention since 1989. In fact, the court’s formal sentence was three years at hard labor for allowing an uninvited intruder to stay...

Mapping a New Geography of Knowledge

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:51:25 -0500

HONOLULU (August 14) — While political debates about globalization have traditionally focused on offshore outsourcing of manufacturing and services, there is increasing recognition that a new type of offshoring may be just as important, if not more so — the emergence of global innovation networks that integrate dispersed engineering, product development and research activities across geographic borders. The challenge for economic researchers and policymakers has been...