The East-West Center legacy

Abstract

The book highlights "legacies"--ways in which the Center and its network of staff, students, professional participants, and alumni have helped to shape the region. Nine legacies were selected from hundreds of collaborative projects involving almost 60,000 participants and staff over five decades. Described in a series of short vignettes, the selected legacies illustrate the wide diversity of Center activities and its distinctive collaborative approach to work. Historical photographs of the Center's dramatic buildings, designed by renowned China-born architect I.M. Pei, and color photographs from around the Asia Pacific region and U.S. illustrate the vignettes. Common themes across all the legacies are the power of collaboration in creatively finding solutions and the importance of work that is relevant to real-life problems. In 2001 the Center opened a program office in Washington, D.C., to enhance U.S. engagement and dialogue with the Asia Pacific region and it regularly hosts workshops and conferences throughout a region that stretches from the United States across the Pacific to the western border of Iran.