The East-West Center Association Blog

A battle is being waged in wheat fields across the world to stave off an impending calamity that can ravage global food security

By Sarosh Bana, Executive Editor of Business India magazine and EWCA Mumbai Chapter President

(Note: This article originally appeared in Business India magazine on April 1, 2013.)

South Asian countries, where wheat is a staple cereal for many, is vulnerably poised in the path of an exceptionally virulent fungus that can wipe out entire farmlands.

Farmers and agriculturist scientists in the region are hunkering down to fortify themselves against this peril that can undermine the food security of millions.

Wheat stem rust fungus.

More than 20 wheat scientists from five South Asian countries – India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan – participated last fortnight in a comprehensive training programme in Kathmandu on wheat rust monitoring and disease management.

Designed to raise a new generation of agro-scientists equipped to identify the more virulent stem, leaf and yellow rusts that can devastate entire farmlands and to create wheat strains that can withstand this scourge, the 2013 SAARC Wheat Rust Surveillance Workshop and Training Programme was the fourth such annual event to be held in South Asia. It was organised by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) Project, managed by the US’s Cornell University. Continue Reading »

By APLP Fellows Loan T. Le from Vietnam and Amir Ramin from Afghanistan

(EWC Alumna Tin Myaing Thein, Executive Director of the Pacific Gateway Center, speaks about the problem of human trafficking. Immigration attorney Grace Michiko Nowicki (R) addressed the related legal issues.)

HONOLULU – On November 14, six fellows from the East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Program (APLP), collaborated with the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council (PAAC) and the Pacific Gateway Center (PGC) in hosting the event, “Human Trafficking in Asia and the Pacific: Current Challenges and Future Prospects.” It was held at the Pacific Gateway Center’s headquarters in the Lemongrass Café in downtown Honolulu.
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EWC international fellows take home lessons from the storm

Christina Monroe, EWC Education Project Specialist & Asia Pacific Leadership Program alumna

(APLP fellows in NYC during Hurricane Sandy witness resilience of the American people.)

It seemed the worst place to be on Oct 29^th, but for fellows trying to understand America, New York City was the perfect spot.
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On April 7, 2011,the U.S. Navy issued the following press release:

Image: Pacific Partnership 2011 website.

PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP LEADERSHIP MEETS AT EAST-WEST CENTER
By MCSN Christopher Farrington, Pacific Partnership 2011 Public Affairs

HONOLULU (NNS) — Pacific Partnership Leaders met with Oceania subject matter experts at the East-West center in Honolulu, Hawaii to discuss how to better serve humanitarian interests in the region, April 1.

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Secretary Clinton delivering speech on America's Engagement in the Asia-Pacific.

Speaking on October 28th, 2010 at the start of an extensive tour of Asia and the Pacific, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the United States is working to sustain and strengthen its engagement in the region. “There are some who say that this long legacy of American leadership in the Asia-Pacific is coming to a close, that we are not here to stay,” Clinton said. “And I say look at our record. It tells a very different story.”

Clinton’s speech was hosted by the East-West Center in cooperation with Pacific Forum CSIS, the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, the Japan-America Society of Hawaii, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the APEC 2011 Hawai‘i Host Committee and the University of Hawai‘i.

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Secretary of State Clinton’s Honolulu Speech
To Be Streamed Live Online Oct. 28

HONOLULU (Oct. 27, 2010) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver a major policy speech in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, on Thursday, Oct. 28 at 8:30 a.m. Hawai‘i Standard Time (HST). Attendance at the event is by invitation only, but the speech will be streamed live online at www.EastWestCenter.org. After the speech, a recorded video will remain posted for viewing on that site.

Secretary Clinton is expected to speak on the next steps in the United States’ Asia-Pacific strategy. Her speech comes during the first stop of a two-week trip to Honolulu, Guam, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.

The speech is being hosted by the East-West Center, in cooperation with Pacific Forum CSIS, the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, the Japan-America Society of Hawai‘i, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the APEC 2011 Hawai‘i Host Committee and the University of Hawai‘i.

Source: East-West Center News

Links:

• Visit the EWC News Center

Source: East-West Wire

Clinton:  ‘America’s future linked to future of Asia Pacific Region’

Secretary of State lays out principles that ‘define America’s engagement and leadership in the region’

HONOLULU (Jan. 14) – In a policy speech delivered Tuesday at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined U.S. goals for multilateral engagement in the region. “America’s future is linked to the future of the Asia Pacific region, and the future of this region depends on America,” Clinton said.

(To view a video of Secretary Clinton’s speech, visit http://www.vimeo.com/8744420. To read the full text of the speech, visit http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135090.htm. To view high resolution press images, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastwestcenter/sets/72157623075594361)

The speech came at start of what had been scheduled to be Clinton’s fourth trip to the Asia Pacific region as America’s top diplomat. However, she later postponed the remainder of her trip and returned to Washington due to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Clinton spoke at the East-West Center in observance of the 50th anniversary year since the Center was founded by Congress to promote better understanding and relations between the peoples and nations of the U.S., Asia and the Pacific.

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Source: East-West Center News

HONOLULU (Jan. 10) — On Tuesday, Jan. 12, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver a major policy address on the U.S. vision for Asia-Pacific multilateral engagement at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Although attendance is by invitation only, the speech will be streamed live online at EastWestCenter.org at 2 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time.

Secretary Clinton’s address comes at the start of an eight-day Pacific trip that, in addition to Hawaii, will take her to Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia.

The State Department has said that the East-West Center was chosen as the venue for Secretary Clinton’s policy address in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary year of the Center’s founding by Congress to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States.

Links:

• For more information on the Center’s history and 50^th year commemorations, visit EastWestCenter.org

Two-week professional workshop in Indonesia during May

will focus on “Internal Conflicts in the Asia Pacific Region”

Applications are being accepted through Jan. 1 for the third annual Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Human Rights. Organized by the Asian International Justice Initiative – a collaboration between the East-West Center and the University of California-Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center ­– Summer Institute 2010 will be held in partnership with the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission in Bali, followed by an optional field trip to Aceh, Sumatra.

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Dr. Chia Siow Yue of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and Dr. Michael G. Plummer (RSI 88, 89; IEP 95; VPRE 96; Wash 07; USAPC 08) of the East-West Center conducted the first comprehensive study of the potential of the ASEAN Economic Community along with a group of researchers from the region. The study was undertaken at the request of the ASEAN Secretariat and prepared through the ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility, a joint program of the U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State.

At the ASEAN-US Leaders Meeting, Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, presented a copy of "Realizing the ASEAN Economic Community" to President Barack Obama.

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