East-West Center in the News

(2012-09-18) Some 70 teacher trainers and government officials will take part in the programme, which is funded entirely by the Brunei government and run jointly by the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and the Honolulu-based East-West Centre. Courses begin with a seven-week module in English proficiency at UBD and continue in Hawaii with a four-week course in culture and leadership, says Terance Bigalke, director of education at the East-West Centre.

"The idea of the English-language proficiency approach is to prepare diplomats and officials for being able to use language effectively in the work that they do," Bigalke says. "For the teacher trainers, the modules deal with education materials and methods of teaching. For the diplomats there are specific courses on leadership and a range of regional issues which we're still ironing out, but which will cover environmental, population health and international relations challenges."

(2012-09-23) "Two rational governments of major countries would not intentionally decide to enter into a major war with each other over a few uninhabited rocks," said Denny Roy, an Asia security expert at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

"But unfortunately, you can arrive at war in ways other than that -- through unintended escalation, in which both countries start out at a much lower level, but each of them think that they must respond to perceived provocation by the other side, both very strongly pushed into it by domestic pressure. That seems to be where we are now and it is difficult to see how countries can get out of that negative spiral."

-- Also appears in: afinance.cn (in Chinese), Asahi Shimbun, AsiaOne, GMA News Online, Gulf Times, Malaysian Insider, Sunday Times Sri Lanka

(2012-10-10) Still, the new plan is seen as a serious effort to integrate Muslims who have long felt like outsiders in the Catholic-dominated state, said Gerard Finin, a senior fellow at Honolulu's East West Center who has traveled and worked in the Philippines since the 1970s.

He sees two major challenges ahead, though. The mediators -- which include the United States, Europe, Malaysia and other Muslim nations -- must strive to keep the rebels unified behind the Moro Islamic Liberation Front leaders during the difficult negotiations ahead. And all must remain vigilant, Finin said, in protecting any new Bangsamoro government from being undermined by the multitude of political, economic and tribal conflicts of interest fueling the violence.

"There are still many big questions to be answered," Finin said. "But things are looking better today than they have for some time."

(2012-10-12) Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center, said that the growing importance of China within the regional economy is multiplying Beijing's economic leverage over its trade partners.

"One argument has been that the Chinese cannot or will not employ economic coercion because economic activity is so globalized," he said. "So the apparent willingness of Beijing to use economics as a political weapon has huge implications." < In 2010, China "squeezed Japan on rare earth elements," he said, in a prominent instance of Beijing using its economic clout to achieve a political outcome.

... According to Roy, the widely reported dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands has impacted the bilateral economic relationship in two ways.

"First, popular anger in China has made the atmosphere less friendly toward doing business with Japan," he said, explaining, for example, that Japanese businesses in China have reported being targeted by crowds of Chinese protesters. "Second, the Chinese government has used other levers, including economic levers, to pressure Japan over the islands dispute."

(2012-10-19) "It's an important advantage for Seoul to have a voice at the table when some of the Security Council's decisions in the near future will likely involve North Korea," said Denny Roy, senior researcher at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

-- Also appears in: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific