 and Indo-Pacific security, really important stuff with some very important people. Susie Vera Slums, she's the president of the East West Center, that is fantastic. We know her from many shows here at Think Tech in the past. And Bob Riley, who is the Chief Operating Officer of the East West Center. But I need some more for an introduction to Susanie, Bob. Can you please introduce her a little bit? I would be happy to. Susan Vera Slum is now the president of East West Center as of January 1st of this year. So it's been about six months, just over six months. Prior to her service at the East West Center, she was a major general in the Army and worked extensively at Indo-Pacific. And in fact, I met her at Indo-Pacific when I was the ambassador to the FSM and has traveled extensively throughout the region and has a lot of knowledge about many of the issues in the Indo-Pacific region. And I'm sure she will be telling you much about that. Thank you. And Susie, just so we know who Bob Riley is, could you give him a brief introduction to tell us his background as a COO, Chief Operating Officer of the East West Center? Well, thanks, Jay. I appreciate being on your show again. And I'm very happy to introduce our Chief Operating Officer, Ambassador, former ambassador to the FSM, Bob Riley. And we are very fortunate to have him. He has an extensive background in the Peace Corps over a decade in the Peace Corps, as well as the Foreign Service in a variety of roles, including key management, as well as ultimately becoming an ambassador in the Pacific where all eyes are on the Pacific. He also has extensive experience in Africa as well and in the Philippines. So worldwide, you could say, and also at the main state in Washington, DC. So we're very pleased to have him here as our Chief Operating Officer. What a great team. Oh, exciting. So let's talk about the East West Center. How do you see it these days? You've been there for a couple of months now, and what's it look like to you, Susie? You know, it's a place of an incredible legacy. Just in May of this year, it was 62 years since the establishment of the East West Center when President Eisenhower signed the authorization for the establishment after a lot of work by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson in 1959 and then carried on by our own Senator, Daniel K. Enoy and Sparky Matsunaga, as well as many other congressional leaders who realized that we needed a place coming out of the ashes of World War II, that we could promote those better relations among people and nations of the United States, Asia and the Pacific through cooperative study, research and dialogue. So I want to continue this legacy by building on the amazing 68,000 alumni who are worldwide at 53 locations, doing incredible things, whether they've been heads of state, ambassadors, chief, entrepreneurs, as well as community leaders that have come out of this program from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000. So we are embarking on a strategic plan right now that should be out, our foundational plan at the middle of this month, actually, to look at where we want to go for the next 10 years. Wow, fabulous. And it also has a tremendous connection with Hawaii going back to the quote friends of the East West Center. My wife spent many, many happy hours with people in the center in many years ago, but as part of that organization, and that represents the connection between the East West Center and Hawaii. That's absolutely right. In fact, as they were considering with Governor Burns back then in 1960s where to have it, it was clear that Hawaii should be that place, being that we're in the middle of the Pacific, we have our hosts, Kanaka Maoli, native Hawaiian community and values that can be a connector of the East and West, and we have the multicultural nature of Hawaii. So it made sense that Hawaii would be the place. And we're happy to say we have a Washington D.C. office now that connects us to the rest of the United States. So it's fantastic. And I'm grateful for your wife and the many others who have helped many generations of East West Center fellows and participants coming through here as sponsors and supporters. Tremendous. I'm getting this patriotic feeling. That always happens right around July 4th. So Bob Riley, can you talk about the conference that was only, what, a week ago at the East West Center? This was a very important conference and Maria Reisa appeared. It was from media journalists and graduates of the East West Center. That's really an enormous event. Can you talk about it? It was a tremendous event. And it was our first in-person conferences in Hawaii since before COVID and since early 2020. And it's like that intervening period never happened. Our folks did a tremendous job. It was an amazing, both conferences were amazing, just incredibly well realized. And it was a major achievement. They worked very, very hard and with a limited staff at that. And really brought off an amazing conference. As you said, Maria Reisa was there, but many other notable and distinguished journalists were there as well. And James Stewart from, I'm sorry, James Stewart. Anyway, there was a very important VOA journalist who was there as many other journalists were there. And it was, they had much to say and it was extremely valuable, I think, to all who attended. And I certainly came out learning a lot. And then the alumni conference was very inspiring. You know, as Suzy mentioned, there are some almost 70,000 alumni of the East West Center. And many of them came to the alumni conference. And it was inspiring to hear what they had to say about the East West Center. So all in all, it was a tremendous thing. Hey, can I butt in a little bit? Of course. I wanted to expound on what Ambassador Riley said is, you know, we had journalists over 300 in person and many more online that came from 35 countries. And these are not just beginning journalists. Many of them are editors or bureau chiefs. So like the US bureau chief for straight times, Nirmal Ghosh, who, you know, he's based in Washington, DC, but came out here or Kitty Pilgrim, also East West Center alum, CNN, Lou Dobbs, you know, evening report for 25 years and authored. Those are just samplings of some of the amazing journalists who were here. In addition to Maria Resta, we had a representation from Metta. So, you know, having journalists who were here who said, who were alumni and said, you know, before we used to be able to control the content and distribution, now we're relying on virtual platforms like Facebook who have a responsibility to ensure that it's distributed in the right way. But I apologize, I just needed to share that bit of information. No, no, no. I want to pursue that a little bit though. You mentioned early that, you know, part of the role of the East West Center is to bring the East and the West together. No surprise, just listening to the name of the center. And part of that is to get the word out. To get the word out to the East, to get the word out to the West. I have conferences just like the one that Bob described last week. And so my question to you is how do you do that? How do you bring the East and the West together? How do you get the word out through the media and otherwise in order to send the right message to both sides? Well, Jay, you know, I want to share first of all, what we're trying to do is share our vision is that the East West Center over the next 10 years and beyond in collaboration with many, many partners because to do this, as Bob mentioned, required many partners, whether it's Congress, state, other countries, other like institutions around the world. We want to be a premier institution or catalyst in the Indo-Pacific for convening, developing and equipping a network of leaders to solve those challenges of common concern, whether it's the environment or governance or the challenges in economy. And we believe that we can do this by number one, being that place that equips and develops those leaders from the United States, Asia and the Pacific, bringing them together. That's what's unique. That's what's different than a Fulbright scholar. That's what's different than a university. We are intentionally bringing them together in this building that was built by I.M. Pei, which is the Hale Manoa here, designed specifically to create inclusion. The second thing is that we want to convene impactful dialogues. So whether it's the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, International Media Conference, Alumni Conference, Pacific Islands Forum Working Group, or ASEAN Working Groups, or as we've seen APEC or the Conservation Congress, we need to continue. Once the APEC happened in 2011, what next? After this happened this week, what next? We got to continue to make sure that we're sharing our voice. The other strategic priorities we have are this. First of all, we want to continue to partner with the Pacific, that the Pacific Islands is the Pico. And Ambassador Riley would tell you that, having been ambassador there in Micronesia, that we see amazing voices in the Pacific that need to be heard. And we believe we have a role in that. We also want to foster environmental solutions. That is increasingly important as we see the impacts of climate change in the Pacific and also in the Indo-Pacific and the world. And the last area, of course, is supporting good governance. We see what happens when we lack good governance, you know, irresponsible investments in economic or infrastructure or, you know, blocking media openness and transparency, poor decision-making that affects and impacts the people in the region. So those areas are of increasing importance throughout the world. And I believe that the East West Center has a key role in helping equipping those leaders so that they can solve those problems and challenges. Yes, yes, amen to that. Bob, you have been through the diplomatic service, you have been to a lot of these places in the Pacific Islands and around the Pacific. Can you talk about how the East West Center reaches or wants to reach those places? And how, as Susie said, it wants to help them environmentally. Well, I think is when I was the US Ambassador to the Federalist States of Micronesia, we had quite a few programs through the East West Center and we interacted directly with those folks. There was a number of leadership training programs, students who went through the scholarship program at the East West Center. And, you know, I think what we're doing now is actually we're broadening the scope. And now we have, for example, we have a large program under the auspices of USAID and SBC, Project Governance, which has its intent to promote good governance throughout the Pacific. And this is a huge project by USAID, it's probably the largest that they've ever done in the Pacific and we're involved in that. And that's a small amount of what we're doing. I think we're also very much involved in the environment. Climate change is a huge part of what we do. We have a RISA program and we have a Green Climate Fund program, which we're actualizing throughout the Asia Pacific region. And these are programs that RISA has been ongoing for quite a while, but this new Green Climate Project is new. And we're just now starting to embark on and these are gonna reach many countries, many Pacific Island countries around the region. You know, Susie, this reminds me of a show we had with APCSS where it came clear that not only did they want to establish better relations with these various countries in Indo-Pacific, but they wanted the countries of Indo-Pacific to establish better relations with each other. And so they would throw them together and they would try to make them friends and so forth. And it strikes me from what you and Bob are saying that that's part of the East-West center mission also. It's not only to bring the East and the West together, it's to bring the elements of the Pacific together so they know each other, so they can cooperate and collaborate and be friends. Am I right? That's exactly right, Jay. And we just do it in a different manner. You know, where we have long-term graduate fellowships, so they actually live here, it's residential program where, you know, whether it's a South Pacific scholars where it's an undergraduate degree, but most are graduate masters and PhDs. So there's a part of the programmatic where they're here long-term. And they're put about one third of the student body are from the United States. And so for many throughout the United States, it's their first time in one place meeting many from the Asia Pacific and showing why Asia matters for America and why America matters for Asia, which by the way is a series that the East-West center in coordination with other partners put out so you can find that as asiamattersforamerica.org and those are, we do it by country. The most recent by the way has been the Philippines. We also have shorter-term programs, whether it's the Jefferson Fellows, which is a premier program for emerging journalists throughout the world. And we saw that at the International Media Conference or the Pacific Islands Leader Program or the Asia Pacific Leadership Program. The young Southeast Asian leaders were just here and those Waistili fellows came and all 20 of them. This was their first time to the United States. It was here. So we're investing in the young leaders and that's where, and then mid-leaders for the professionals program and also not just here in Hawaii, but also in Washington, DC where we have the congressional leaders program and the young professionals program that also is funded through other countries as well. And the difference as well as our funding is congressionally funded going through the State Department, but the other part of our funding comes from generous donors who have left an amazing mark throughout generations as well as other organizations to help fund scholarships which are very much in need. If I just to give you an example, the young Southeast Asian leaders program, we had 20 here, 15,000 applied for that program. We had 318 South Pacific scholars apply for the graduate programs here. The State Department allocates only three. So only three were able to come. So when we look at opportunities that Asia Pacific Islanders would like to have here in the United States through here, they go to the University of Hawaii and participate in our program and live here on our campus at the East West Center. There's much need and we're so grateful to be able to put this information out to find more people who are willing to support young leaders and invest in their future. Yeah, it's so important. I would add just to your point that we bring other countries together. We are also a crop agency of the Pacific Islands Forum through the Pacific Islands Development Program. And this program unites all 20 of the Pacific entities, not just countries, but also territories and even the state of Hawaii. And it's the only organization that does that. And so as such, we also sponsor the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders. And this is a huge event that we're going to have an event sometime this year, very soon. And it's going to be a major event which will involve the heads of states of most of those entities in person. And I think we'll have a hybrid version too for those who cannot come. So that is very much a way of bringing all of the various states, territories, countries together in the Pacific. Yeah, that's really interesting. I was going to ask you about heads of state and whether you might get them here. And why not APEC before 21 years? APEC at 10 years, for example. Why not have it at the, and you are having it effectively. And I think diplomacy, let me ask you this, diplomacy has changed as it changed in your program last week by being hybrid. And a lot of these conferences you guys are talking about are now going to be hybrid. And COVID has changed the way diplomacy works. Am I right? Absolutely. We need to provide for and be sensitive to Pacific Island nations, especially where medical capacity is not there. And in times of a pandemic, it's very clear that ability to come into another space that might make you more vulnerable, we have to provide this. In the past, someone might have said, there's no way you could do this virtually. Now it is acceptable. And I think it's a wonderful way to get the information out. And in fact, we can touch more people in terms of being able to connect more frequently and have meetings where we would have to wait. So the communication I think is much more open and it's very exciting to have this capability. Well, it's leverage. But what about the public, Bob? Was the public generally invited to the conference last week? Will the public have access to the East, West and now? Will the public be invited? Will the public be able to attend classes and be part of the process now? Well, the public was allowed to attend the conferences last week. Certainly the international media conference was open to the public. There was a fee to attend. And I think we did have quite a few people from outside the media who were there. And that was quite exciting to see them. I think it really helped to spread the word. In regards to opening up the East, West Center itself to the public, we're open. We're open now. We've opened, been open since March. And we, you know, people just enter and then they register as a guest and then you usually have to have a sponsor, but not always if you have a good reason to be there. There's, the receptionist will route you to the right place. But we're open there as well. And in terms of the classes, actually, I think those classes are really in UH. We do not actually have classes. Those are University of Hawaii classes that they attend, but we have our separate East, West Center program within our premises. And together, students from a variety of different countries, as Susan mentioned, come together, eat together, live together and get to know many different cultures. And it really is something that they remember for the rest of their lives. And we have a very loyal alumni base that comes from that. And that's why there were so many alumni at the alumni office. Jay, can I add to that? So we do also, by the way, have an arts program that we don't talk about as much. That arts program is pretty deep. And that is open to the public. We have an arts, right now it's Pacific. So we will be part of the Pacific Festival the Pacific in 2024. And Aaron Salah, Dr. Aaron Salah is also an adjunct fellow here at the East West Center and also the director of that fest. And the exhibition has to do with the last festival of the Pacific in Guam. And that's open to the public. They can come and enjoy that as well. And all of the seminars that are advertised if you go to our East West Center website and sign up for all of the seminars, wonderful dialogues on whether it's Korea or Trilat or environmental issues in the region. Anyone can sign up for those. So I recommend that people go to our East West Center website and sign up for those early registration. And as well as I mentioned that many of our publications are accessible on that website as well. Well, I think it's important that people in Hawaii, people who are here, people who are coming through here should understand Hawaii's role in Asia Pacific and Indo-Pacific. And you are an expression of that role. And so it's important that they have, they learn from you. We have to teach people in Hawaii what it means to be the connector in the East and the West. You mentioned before that you had fundraising activities going on. And I recall, this would be around the time that Hillary Clinton visited the East West Center when she was Secretary of State. And I recall that she was there. I can remember her comments and all. In those days, it was a challenge to get funding. And I wonder if that challenge has, I mean, federal funding. If that challenge has been met, I wonder how you're doing in terms of federal support? Well, I can tell you, we're really pleased at our Hawaii delegation. They have been so supportive. And as well as the US Congress, we just did a congressional round table last week with our Senate and House. Myself and our vice president in DC presented and it was very clear that our Congress is very supportive. So we're really proud that most of our funding comes from Congress and the US government. However, when we talk about those investments in student programs and scholarships, we look to a lot of private funders for that so that we can expand that number that I gave you. Cause, you know, our US Congress is supporting the programs and the center itself, but we do need to match that with other private donors. But Bob, maybe you can chime in a little bit about our latest good news from Representative Case and support for Senator Schatz and Hirono and as well as Haika Helle. Yes, indeed. You know, it was very good news to hear just last week that the House Appropriations Committee has increased our federal budget from a 19.7 million level this year to 21 million next year. And I know that Senator Schatz and Senator Hirono are also very supportive of our program and are trying to ensure that that level is at that increased level or higher. So we'll see how that comes out. You know, they have many budget battles to go through. It's not an easy process. It's definitely sausage making. So it's not a certainty, but it's certainly a great sign and certainly indicative of the incredible support we get from the Hawaii delegation for which we are very, very grateful. I can only see that as getting better and better because I know, Susie, how you present. And I know how persuasive you are. Could I just say a quick word about that? She would never say this about herself, but Susie brings dynamism, energy, empathy and vision. I mean, honestly, she's just the right person for the East-West Center at this critical period. And I think we're gonna see some real success in the future. Yes, you wanna respond to that or should I go on to the next question? Bob is so kind and I really appreciate that. I couldn't do about him without amazing staff. If you would have seen the passion last week and Bob can attest to this. I mean, everyone all hands on deck to make it happen. And it was incredible. So I'm just grateful to be part of this team. And we are grateful to have you, Susie, honestly. So let me ask you my last area of inquiry, if you don't mind. So the East-West Center is in many ways a diplomatic organization. And it's got an interest in expressing American influence and power through Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific and making sure that everybody likes us. Okay? At the same time, we have China. China is a very complicated place. And it's very ambitious and sometimes aggressive. And that's gotta be on your radar. And I wonder, what the dynamic, what dynamic you see going forward in terms of American presence in Indo-Pacific, in Asia-Pacific? And what role the East-West Center would play in dealing with the expression of American influence there? Thanks, Jay. I think the environment has changed and we've had actually many Chinese students. So I think we are, East-West Center is a place where everyone can come together to find out where our mutual interests lay and also areas that we need to work out. It is a trusted, they use the word neutral but it's very difficult to be neutral sometimes. I mean, you want to be neutral, but it's a trusted space, an open space where we have multiple perspectives. And that includes, we have extensive Chinese alumni who also have been through these programs that continue to be very active. And we also have regional leaders who say, help us to build capacity in our economy, in our healthcare, in our students, in our, give us options and relationships and not put us in a position where we have to choose. And I think that's where East-West Center can come in to lay everything on the table, to talk about where our interests meet and where we can help each other to make people's lives better. Cause really the focus here is people to people, nation to nation, caring about one another. And I think that's where the East-West Center needs to focus. Amen. Amen. Bob, you're probably going to agree, huh? I absolutely agree. I mean, it is a real challenge to maintain our traditional stance of neutrality and dialogue in this very competitive environment. But I think we can meet that challenge. In fact, we are meeting that challenge. Oh, fantastic. So one of the next steps going forward, Susie, what's going to happen first and how you see all of this unfolding for you? Well, by the end of this month, we will have our foundational strategic plan on those priority areas I talked about, whether it's leaders, convening, Pacific environment and governance and looking at strategies and programs that meet those needs, not just going beyond the understanding, which is critical, but also equipping leaders to be able to have the financial media literacy and economic entrepreneurship, the connections, understanding where the grants sit so they can make lives better for the people in their countries. So that's where we're going next. Also building more relationships, going out to share the story of the East-West Center and where we want to go next and bringing people along to ride this wave with us. That's exactly where we need to go, in my opinion. We have to, as I mentioned, there's a certain amount of geopolitical contention, but you have to have friends. And that's people to people. And that serves a tremendously important role in the Pacific and in the Indo-Pacific. Well, thank you, Susie. We wish you all the best, make a special blessing. I'm making a special blessing on you now. Okay, see the way I do that. And Bob, you too, Bob. And I wish you well, you guys. You're a great team and you've been great on this program. And I hope we get to see you again soon. Suzanne Varislam, President of the East-West Center and Bob Riley, Chief Operating Officer of the East-West Center. What an honor it is to have you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Jay. Thank you, Jay. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.