Forum Series Descriptions

Congressional Study Groups

In line with its mission to strengthen relations and increase understanding between the United States and the countries of the Asia Pacific region, the East-West Center in Washington currently sponsors three Congressional Study Groups that are held on Capitol Hill. The Congressional Study Group on Asian Security, Asia Pacific Economy, and the Pacific Islands provide fora for the dissemination of new research and discussion of key issues and problems in US-Asia Pacific relations of concern to members of the United States Legislature and its staff.

Asian Security Forum

Comprising a select group of experts from the policy, think tank, and academic communities in the Washington area, the Forum convenes regularly to discuss security issues in and affecting Asia from a U.S. perspective.  In addition to providing a venue for regular interaction for Washington-based experts on Asian Security, the Forum also helps identify key issues for policy research.

Democracy and Human Rights Seminar Series

Most Asian democracies are postwar, postcolonial creations. Few are or strive to be liberal democracies in the style of their "western" counterparts, and fewer still are fully consolidated. Many of the states in question face persistent challenges of nation-building, democratic deepening, and institutional strengthening. Theories of democracy and strategies for democratization developed in other regions may be inadequate as guides to structures and processes in this highly dynamic and diverse region, and may themselves benefit from closer consideration of Asian cases. This year's EWCW Democracy and Human Rights seminar series will address Problems of Democracy in Asia. Speakers in the series will evaluate the challenges faced by democracies in the region and propose possible remedies, present new ways to understand the issues at stake, and offer comparisons within the region, with democracies elsewhere, and with prevailing theories of democracy. Among the "problems of democracy" we will address are:

1. Crafting and strengthening of constitutional, electoral, and other political institutions and culture.
2. Development and strengthening of local level democratic institutions and/or practice.
3. Limits to inclusiveness, representation, and participation.
4. Implications for democracy of socioeconomic (in)equity.
5. Extralegal challenges to democracy.

The series will be on a monthly basis. Seminars will be in the afternoons from 3-4:30 pm, at the East-West Center Washington, unless otherwise indicated.