APLP Experience: Setting
- APLP classes take place in the Imin Conference Center, adjacent to the Japanese Garden
The East-West Center is located in Manoa, a residential neighborhood in Honolulu, a modern city of 800,000 and the thirteenth largest city in the U.S., on the island of O‘ahu.
Bus transportation on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i’s most populous island, is excellent, and many sites in the city can be reached by bicycle or motor scooter. The other major Hawaiian islands – Kaua‘i, Maui, Lana‘i, Moloka‘i and Hawai‘i Island are all easily reached through inter-island flights.
Hawai‘i’s reputation as one of the world’s most beautiful places is well deserved.
But Hawai‘i is more than just a vacation paradise. Its multi-ethnic community is one of the most diverse in the United States, with no single ethnic majority and significant inter-marriage among the many different Asian, Caucasian, Pacific Island and indigenous Hawaiian populations. Its natural resources include hundreds of plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world.
Hawai‘i’s colonial history, tourism-driven economy and strategic importance all reflect more general political and economic issues in the Pacific and beyond.
Maximizing the pedagogical value of this unique setting, the APLP curriculum approaches Hawai‘i as a leadership laboratory, examining local leadership challenges through guest speakers, field trips, internships and research projects.
Honolulu is also home to a high density of centers focused on Asia and/or the Pacific with whom the APLP works to varying degrees. These Centers include:
School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS)
Established in 1987, SPAS offers academic programs in Asian Studies and Pacific Islands Studies. SPAS also has centers for Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, Pacific Islands Studies, Philippines Studies, South Asian Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies. Through these centers and programs, SPAS helps to coordinate the efforts of some 300 faculty specialists throughout the university who offer more than 600 courses related to Asia and the Pacific.
Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
The Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) addresses regional and global security issues, inviting military and civilian representatives of the United States and 45 Asia Pacific nations to its comprehensive program of executive education and conferences, both in Hawaii and throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
The Center for Pacific Islands Studies, in the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS), is both an academic department and a larger home for initiatives that bring together people and resources to promote an understanding of the Pacific Islands and issues of concern to Pacific Islanders. Its innovative instructional program is regional, comparative, and interdisciplinary in nature. The university’s Pacific Collection, one of the most comprehensive collections of Pacific materials in the world, attracts a worldwide audience, as do the center’s international conferences, its Web-based resources, its Pacific Islands Monograph Series, and its award-winning journal, The Contemporary Pacific. Working with scholars at institutions in the region and elsewhere, faculty at the center are seeking new ways to encompass a deeper understanding of a region whose boundaries are constantly expanding.
Pacific and Asian Affairs Council
PAAC has continuously brought substantive and critical issues of foreign affairs to Hawaii through its programs, Speaker Forums, International Visitor Leadership Program, International Affairs Outreach Program and High School Global Education Program .
The Pacific and Asian Affairs Council is the World Affairs Council for the State of Hawai‘i. The World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) is a national network of educational organizations that promotes and focuses on events and issues on the international level.
Pacific Asian Management Institute
The Pacific Asian Management Institute (PAMI) serves as a driving force for internationalization and global recognition at the University of Hawai‘i Shidler College of Business. PAMI aspires to become the premier source of international business and management expertise with a focus on the Asia Pacific Region.
Pacific Forum CSIS
The Pacific Forum CSIS is a non-profit, private, foreign policy research institute that operates as the Asia Pacific arm of the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1975, the thrust of the Forum's work is to help stimulate cooperative policies in the Asia Pacific region through debate and analyses undertaken with the region's leaders in the academic, government, and corporate arenas.
An international Board of Governors guides the Pacific Forum's work; it is chaired by Joseph Nye, former Assistant to Presidents Bush and Ford for National Security Affairs.
Japan-America Institute of Management Science
Founded in 1972 by Fujitsu Limited, JAIMS' vision is to be a premier, top quality institute in intercultural management education, emphasizing total excellence, cross-cultural communications, and information technology.
The Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases
The Asia-Pacific institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases collects data to develop early-warning systems for epidemic transmission of infectious diseases in the Asia Pacific region by using the latest diagnostic, epidemiologic and information technology.
- And yes, occasionally participants do surf.
