Politics, Governance, and Security

Research in Politics, Governance, and Security addresses issues of domestic and international political change, governance, civil society, human rights, conflict, cooperation, and security and is comparative and regional in orientation. The study area includes projects on:

The Asian International Justice Initiative (AIJI) is a collaborative project between the East-West Center and the University of California Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center (WCSC). Since 2003, the two centers have worked together to foster justice initiatives and capacity-building programs that promote human rights. The primary objective is to provide on-the-ground support for rule-of-law programs in Asian societies that are moving from post-conflict situations to peace. Additionally, the Initiative helps governments pursue a human rights-oriented approach to policymaking, partnering with a range of local and intergovernmental organizations that work on transitional justice initiatives and justice-sector reform.

To date, AIJI has conducted training, monitoring, and community outreach projects in Cambodia, East Timor, and Indonesia, including Papua. The Initiative also works at the regional level to support the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Resource Center for ASEAN. In addition, AIJI conducts an annual Summer Institute for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Professor David Cohen, a leading expert in international humanitarian law and international criminal law, directs all AIJI activities.

Effective democratic governance continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing the Asia Pacific region, as countries cope with demands of the global economy and pressures from citizens for greater participation and transparency. Coordinated by Senior Fellow Shabbir Cheema, the Asia Pacific Governance and Democracy Initiative (AGDI) undertakes policy-relevant research, organizes dialogues and workshops, documents emerging regional trends and issues, and conducts strategic outreach activities. AGDI works with national, regional, and global institutions to foster: civil-society engagement in democratic change; cross-border governance; electoral and parliamentary processes to sustain democracy; transparency and anti-corruption strategies to promote trust in government; and civil-service reform and resource management to promote economic development.

Another research project examines the strategic environment of Northeast Asia, including the rise of China as an economic, political, and military power with commensurate regional and global influence. China’s own foreign policy is changing, with a greater willingness to assert national interests, and other nations in the region are adjusting their policies in reaction to China’s growing strength. Additional variables include democratization (and the possibility of its spread to China), aging and population decline, and generational change in the traditionally US-aligned East Asian societies of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Against this larger backdrop, Senior Fellow Denny Roy follows specific issues such as China-U.S. strategic disputes, relations across the Taiwan Strait, the North Korea nuclear weapons crisis, and managing tensions in the South China Sea.

Denny Roy also coordinates the POSCO Visiting Fellows program. This program brings four to six scholars to the East-West Center every year to spend one or two months conducting policy-relevant research on current political, security, and economic issues relating to Korea.

It has been more than three decades since China embarked on a transition towards an internationally open market economy, sparking enormous social, political, and economic change. Research at the East-West Center focuses on China's transition to a market economy and the challenges this transition poses for the rest of the world. Led by non-resident Research Fellow Christopher McNally, this collaborative project includes an assessment of China’s attempts to make a transition from export- and investment-driven growth toward a more domestically centered model based on internal consumption, rising incomes, and environmental sustainability. Research also explores the political-economic effects of China’s policy to develop the country’s western regions.

Other collaborative research at the East-West Center looks at national policy frameworks and institutional capacity for disaster management. Led by Senior Fellow Allen L. Clark, this work includes urban risk assessment and management and governance and policy issues related to Asia's urban and peri-urban growth.

The Research Program in Honolulu works with the East-West Center's Washington, DC office on additional projects related to conflict and security.

Research Staff

G. Shabbir Cheema, Senior Fellow
Allen L. Clark, Senior Fellow
David Cohen, Adjunct Fellow
Eric Harwit, Adjunct Fellow
Christopher McNally, Non-resident Fellow
Denny Roy, Senior Fellow and Coordinator, POSCO Fellowships
Sheila A. Smith, Adjunct Fellow
Michelle Staggs, Adjunct Fellow

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