HAWAII now has two East-West Centers. Their national legislative sponsor, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, sees them both fulfilling broad national goals - well worth the federal investment put into them. Hawaii’s other
East-West CenterBoth aim to help the U.S. build stronger networks of friends in the Asia-Pacific region, which has most of the world's population, seven of the world's 10 largest armies and strong economic growth. It already is far more economically important to us than Europe, Inouye says.
On a 1992 tour, he heard a nearly unanimous desire of Asia-Pacific leaders for America to remain the restraining and stabilizing force for the region.
The 36-year-old East-West Center has a civilian focus and 40,000 friendly alumni all through Asia-Pacific, some in key spots.
The new Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies has a very clear goal to help defuse future military conflict situations by getting several hundred leaders each year to know each other better.
Inouye, who was defense appropriations chairman at the time, saw a comparable Europe-focused center in operation on a former U.S. army base in Garmisch, Germany. He and his colleague, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, now chairman, were impressed by the liaisons it was building among rising young military officers and diplomats from the U.S., Germany and former Soviet bloc nations.
The two agreed a comparable center was needed in the Pacific, where varying cultures and religions make understanding even more difficult.
APC now is hosting its first training class - 23 military officers from 12 countries at the Waikiki Trade Center. Later classes will be bigger and involve more countries.
Everything the center does is unclassified. The one subject it won't touch is war-fighting. Its original name of Chester Nimitz Center was dropped because Nimitz is known primarily as a war-fighter, unlike George Marshall, for whom the European center is named.
APC's focus is war avoidance. Courses and lectures will focus on area-wide concerns and cooperative opportunities.
The center seeks future military and diplomatic leaders for the 12-week courses, current leaders for short-term conferences. Participants are jointly chosen by the U.S. and the sponsoring country. Developed nations pay travel and residence costs for their representatives. Poorer nations can get subsidies.
All area nations are included except North Korea, with which we have no diplomatic relations. The total is 45. Most of them were represented when Defense Secretary William Perry formally opened the center here on Sept. 4, 1995.
APC's temporary Waikiki Trade Center location has posh rugs and great views and is under a lease negotiated by the General Services Administration. It is equipped with GSA furnishings. Participants stay in nearby hotels under contract rates below $60 a night.
PERMANENT headquarters are likely to be either at Fort Shafter in structures to be built near Richardson Theatre or in a renovated building at Fort DeRussy. Inouye leans to Shafter as less susceptible to boondoggle criticisms but says the final decision will be made by the U.S. commander-in-chief Pacific, Adm. Joseph Prueher.
APC is assembling a small permanent faculty with military and diplomatic experience. It will be supplemented with guest lecturers from such places as the University of Hawaii, the East-West Center and the Pacific Forum.
Col. Jimmie R. Lackey, the project director for getting APC launched, hopes it can help "get us out of the 911 mode for the world."
Federal funding for APC is allocated through the year 2001. It's about $3 million this year versus $10 million for the East-West Center, but will need more as APC gets up to fuller operation.