East-West Center in the News

(2012-07-03) Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the Hawaii-based East-West Center, tells VOA that China is not trying very hard to enforce international sanctions, which are aimed at preventing Pyongyang from obtaining materials needed for its nuclear and weapons programs.

"I think that people who study the issue have concluded long ago that China's interests for North Korea are different enough from the United States and South Korea that it is not a very promising prospect to expect that China will help enforce the sanctions," said Roy.

-- Also appears in: States News Service

(2012-07-17) “The Philippines is in a strategically important location. It’s an ally. It’s smack in the middle of the South China Sea,” said Denny Roy, a senior fellow with the East-West Center in Hawaii. “Greater access to the Philippines would, no question, make some operations easier … and enable [the U.S.] to bring more forces to bear.”

... But having a short-term presence may be less important to the United States than improving ties with the Philippines, Roy said, considering the hot-bed issues in the region, which includes balancing military forces to counter the perceived rising threat from China.

Shorter deployments, he said, also could ease the pressure off Okinawa, where the United States is pressed to reduce its footprint even as it plans to shift 5,000 Marines to other places, including Hawaii and Guam, in the coming years. “It’s more a matter that the United States would make do with the best situation it can get,” he said, adding, “It’s a matter of taking an advantage to improve their positioning” in the region