East-West Center in the News

(2012-11-10) But still - as Dieter Ernst, a senior research fellow at the East West Centre, Hawaii, said recently - we need to know the challenges the US faces in job creation. In a recent presentation, "Industrial Innovation and Employment", at a seminar of new generation policymakers, Ernst attributed the persistent unemployment in the US to a significant erosion of international competitiveness and innovation barriers such as lack of investment.

From 2001 to 2011, state and lo- cal financing per student in the US declined by 24 per cent despite a 72 per cent increase in tuition fees. This made student loans exceed $1 trillion, more than Americans owe to credit card companies. This, along with inadequate support for industry-related research, has seriously constrained US industry's ability to create more jobs, Ernst said. It has also resulted in a skill mismatch, with 3.2 million job vacancies going unfilled because employers couldn't find suitable candidates.

Besides, US trade deficit in advanced technology products increased from US$16.6 billion in 2002 to $99.6 billion in 2011, Ernst said, with the information and communications technology sector accounting for the largest share, causing jobs to flee abroad.

-- Also appears in: Asia News Network via Yahoo! Singapore News

(2012-11-12) Meanwhile, the co-director of the East-West Centre’s Pacific Islands Development Programme, Dr Gerard Finin, agrees that while media, specifically newspapers, attempt to be neutral as a matter of professionalism, in the process they present editorials that could endorse one candidate or the other.

“And they benefit financially from advertising,” he said.

“There’s the perception that some media favour a liberal or conservative candidate, are in favour of one or the other and I think that’s nothing new.”

But Dr Finin stresses that for all its faults and imperfections, the media remains a crucial ingredient of democracy.

“The media is so essential to the democratic process for the distribution of information and making the system honest — it’s absolutely essential,” he says.

“Winners will say the media is good and losers will say the media is unfair — and, perhaps, that’s human nature.”

(2012-11-13) "Influence from CMC members will be a major factor in determining whether there is peace or conflict in the region," explains Professor Denny Roy from the East-West Centre in Hawaii.

"This matters now more than ever because there are so many regional issues that are on a knife-edge between stability and hostilities - the South China Sea, the East China Sea, North-South Korea tensions, the future of Taiwan, and the possibility of incidents between US and Chinese naval and air forces."

… "Their main goal is military effectiveness as opposed to being concerned with politics and ideology," says Prof Roy.

… "Some analysts believe the lack of fighting experience might breed overconfidence, which could leave the PRC more likely to take risky and confrontational actions that force opponents to fight or back down," explains Professor Roy.