The East-West Center has welcomed 27 emerging leaders from 10 Pacific island nations to this year’s Pacific Islands Leadership Program with Taiwan. They will spend close to two months in Honolulu engaging in experiential learning exercises then travel to Taipei for a month of field study at the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Josefina Pereira, a senior in justice administration at UH-Hilo, represented Timor-Leste at a recent youth human rights summit held at UN headquarters in New York, where she shared thoughts on children’s rights in her homeland. …more…

Some 40 arctic specialists from Asia, North America and Europe met at EWC August 9-11 for the seventh North Pacific Arctic Conference. Co-sponsored by the Center and the Korea Maritime Institute, the annual meeting brings together experts from government, academia, industry and civil society for candid policy discussions on emerging arctic issues.

Nonresident Senior Fellow Marcus Noland spoke recently on the theme of his new book "Hard Target: Sanctions, Inducements and the Case of North Korea," authored with colleague Stephan Haggard. View video of Noland's seminar, and read his North Korea blog.

In early August, 15 congressional staff members completed the 2017 EWC-Sasakawa USA Congressional Staff Program on Asia on Capitol Hill. The bipartisan certificate program covered a broad range of policy-relevant U.S.-Asia topics during three months of weekly sessions. …more…

Participants in the inaugural “Women Fast Forward” Asia Pacific consultation held at EWC in late June have released a communiqué of policy recommendations to help the G20 address ongoing disparity in women’s economic status. The dialogue was associated with the “W20” process on women’s economic empowerment. ...more...