#east-west center

[themokupuni]

East-West Center Report Suggests Need for Better Fact-Checking

Asia Matters for America is a longstanding series of reports that provide “visually easy-to-understand data, graphics, analysis, and information on the US-Indo-Pacific relationship.” 

Produced by the East-West Center in Washington, these reports are designed to help “policy makers, politicians, business leaders, academics, media, and the general public” make sense of U.S. relations in the Indo-Pacific Region. They are intended to do so through “nonpartisan, credible, and up-to-date information on diplomacy, policy, trade, investment, and educational and cultural exchanges.” 

This year, the East-West Center (EWC) published a new report in the series on the Pacific Islands. Funded by the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA), this report is supposed to give a primer on “the trade, investment, employment, business, diplomacy, security, education, tourism, and people-to-people connections between the United States and the Pacific Island Countries.” 

Here, the authors set out to make the case that Pacific Island Countries (PICs) matter to America, and vice versa. One of the key pieces of evidence that they use to back-up their argument is that American cities maintain eight sister city partnerships with five Pacific Island Countries. Unfortunately, this claim is based on contradictory and questionable premises.

Digging deeper into the report, the contradictions become apparent. 

Whereas the authors claim that there are eight partnerships with five PICs, they only provide a table with six of them. As for the rest, they note that Hawaii “also shares two connections with the US territories of American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.” 

The math simply does not add up. Either these American territories must count as sovereign states or two of the sister city partnerships must be missing from the report.

The other problems are less obvious.

Last week, I thought that the mainland partnerships would make a good feature for the Center on Public Diplomacy. So, I set out to do some background research on the Compton, Des Plaines, Gilroy, Neosho, and Oceanside ones.

When I reviewed official websites, I was surprised to find scant mention of these partnerships. 

On the Oceanside website, I found a page dedicated to sister cities. It listed cities in China, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Montenegro, and the Philippines. However, there was no mention of one in Samoa. 

On the other websites, I encountered more problems. The Gilroy website references a regular advisory meeting with the Gilroy Sister City Association. Their website has a page dedicated to a partnership with Koror. However, it fails to mention recent sister city activities. On the Compton, Des Plaines, and Neosho websites, I found nothing of relevance.

When I reached out to city officials, I was in for even more surprises. Their responses suggested the partnerships with A’ana, Apia, Koror, and Nailuva actually don’t seem to matter all that much.

In Gilroy, the president of the Gilroy Sister Cities Association, Hugh Smith, confirmed that the city officially still has a “sister city relationship with Koror,” but that “has been inactive for many years.” He shared that they had sent “a letter to that effect” to their Koror counterparts about a decade ago. However, they “got no reply.” He added, “I doubt if anyone there is even aware of it.” So, what does this mean? In Smith’s words, “For all intents and purposes … we don't have a real sister city in Koror.” 

Outside Gilroy, the story appears to be murkier. A Compton official said that they didn’t recall any recent activities with Apia. A Des Plaines official responded, “I’ve done some research internally and as far as I can tell we do not have an active partnership with any Sister Cities at this moment.” An Oceanside official acknowledged, “no - we do not have a Sister City relationship with A’ana.” 

These findings left me shaking my head. 

EWC seems to have accidentally published inaccurate, or at least misleading, information in their flagship publication on U.S. - Pacific Islands relations. And, that should concern American policymakers.

First, these findings bring into question whether this EWC report is a reliable source. One of the key factors in being able to persuade others that something matters is one’s perceived credibility. When it becomes known that an institution has published inaccurate or misleading information on a particular topic, people will start to question more than the expertise and trustworthiness of the authors of that publication. They will question the credibility of their employer and funder as well. To restore their trust, American policymakers should not only demand that all Asia Matters for America reports be fact-checked post haste. They should require strong fact-checking safeguards be put in place on future research projects funded by the United States Department of Interior.

Second, this incident begs the question of whether the United States has a large enough bench of experts on Pacific Affairs. One of the key strategies for winning any argument is to avoid the fallacy of questionable premises. This exists whenever an argument is based on questionable or unlikely to be acceptable premises. To expose such a fallacy, one has to possess sufficient background information to know that a premise being advanced is questionable or unlikely to be acceptable. In this case, that body of knowledge is Pacific Affairs. Without it, a faulty argument can go unnoticed like this one. To avoid a repeat, American policymakers need to invest in broadening and deepening the bench of American experts. This will require strengthening regional studies departments at universities, improving regional coverage at media outlets, expanding regional programs in think tanks, and creating more regional  programs at nonprofits. This is how you create more fact-checkers on the issue. Of course, that will take time. In the interim, Aussie and Kiwi policymakers could fill the gap.

We ought to hold those who we trust to produce facts about the Pacific Islands Region to a high standard. Here, that standard was not met.

However, it is important to recognize that no one is perfect when it comes to writing about regional affairs. Not academics. Not bureaucrats. Not journalists. Not policy wonks. We all make mistakes. And, we actually make them quite often. That’s why we need safeguards like editors and reviewers. They help to protect our reputations. Here, those safeguards unfortunately seem to have broken down.

Michael Walsh is a freelance foreign correspondent who formerly served as the Washington Correspondent for The Diplomat.

This article appeared in the Pacific Island Times on October 4, 2022.

Image Credit: East-West Center Website

Copyright 2022

[boiledegghole]

another attempt on the concept of salmonid traditional art

[fictionadventurer]

🌠

[doedipus]

a large amount of time I've been spending on -untitled undefined scope original fiction project- since the last time I posted about it has been trying to develop the protagonist concept I came up with last summer or whatever into like, a character that would feel real and era appropriate.

it's fun research to do. naturally a lot of the details I assigned to her are things that I already think are cool, so it's been a lot of fun trying to trace her traits back through the relatively recent past, getting reminded of how much things have changed, or where the gaps in my intuition are, and then doing a flurry of reading to get a sense for exactly how someone like her and the people around her could have happened and what her life was probably like leading up to her present day. hopefully this results in some good good verisimilitude.

[junkbbykow]

Astrology Across Asia by DearAsianYouth

[lecliss]

This is so meaningless but like, I kinda can't stand the term "mid-west". Like, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that just central? And I know the term Central American already exists for Mexico, but we can just say central North America, right?

[thorsenmark]

My Outdoor Wellness Trip by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the south down Kelbaker Rd. Here I wanted to capture a look down the road with the more distant ridges and peaks of the Mojave Desert Range in this portion of California.

[cyberbullyinc]

not to sound like a cunt but people from the north visit mexico city and act like they’re in europe like 😭😭😭😭😭😭 its kinda sweet kinda embarrassing

[rabbitcruiser]

NYC Transit Authority was formed on June 15, 1953.

[theelectricpeach]

Abolish time zones

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[soon-palestine]

BREAKING: The massacres committed by israel from Tuesday’s dawn till now - 84 Palestinians killed!

14 martyrs, including the sister of the head of the political bureau of Hamas, in the bombing of a house in the Beach camp, west of Gaza City.

12 martyrs, most of them children and women, as a result of the occupation bombing of a school to shelter displaced people in central Gaza City.

More than 30 martyrs, most of them women and children, in 3 massacres committed by the occupation by bombing two homes and a shelter center in different areas of the Gaza Strip.

3 martyrs after the occupation bombed a group of Palestinians on Al Wahda Street in Gaza City.

Gaza Civil Defense: Our crews recovered 13 martyrs as a result of three attacks in Gaza Governorate.

The number of victims of the massacre in the Bani Suhaila roundabout in the center of Khan Yunis rose to 10 martyrs and dozens of wounded.

Two martyrs in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

BREAKING: 15 Killed in Al Shati’ camp including 9 from Ismail Hineyah’s Family.

The Haniyeh family members were killed after the bombing of their home in the shati’ camp, west of Gaza, included the sister of the head of the Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh and his wife, their names:

Zahr Abdel Salam Haniyeh (Nahed’s mother)

Nahed Ghazi Haniyeh

His wife, Iman Ahmed Haniyeh

Muhammad Nahed Haniyeh

Ismail Nahed Haniyeh

Moamen Nahed Haniyeh

Zahr Nahed Haniyeh

Shahad Nahed Haniyeh

Amal Nahed Haniyeh A number of them are still under the rubble

[space-ferret]

This took so long and I have never drawn so many feet before. But I finally drew all 5 of them! It only took 10+ years to draw any of them together!

[in-sightpublishing]

Ask A Genius 983: East and West Might be Myth

Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/06/29  Scott Douglas Jacobsen: With the increase in communication technologies, the speed of travel, and the progression of these systems, do you think the concepts of East and West make much sense anymore? Rick Rosner: No, I always go back to Cory Doctorow, who…

[artcalledtheewhip]

From Facebookpost!!!!!! Hey AEIOU tumblr! Let’s dance ohh ahh rhythms and blues, hear while I write somethangs down! Nicki Halley Conceding To Rump T Handshaking Her worthless campaign paid so by much It’s open losing No court proceeds for a city She fail externally Her between legs clumped and chomped See there in YouTube Dis attraction working on me Look close to face Puckered and conceding Look closer Up close Haven’t created on Facebook in so way long That distraction Republicans play games Haven’t created on Facebook in so way long That distraction Republicans play games Haven’t created on Facebook in so way long That distraction Republicans play games Still reading What’s wrong with you No one reads to here That N H between legs Some WOW not a woman It’s funny Gather still some rights un granted We shake hands with rump T The grouper He made millions It’s funny you all Facebooked 😉 (Wordsbymm||mmybsdroW) That’s Words by MMartinez || the second Markm why bullshit Doctor whole World All in capsule swallowing size Sizzle down something more It’s funny Am I ?!

[thorsenmark]

Sunset Highway (Great Basin National Park) by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: At a roadside pullout just off Nevada Hwy 50 with a view looking to the southwest and the mountains in Great Basin National Park. This was one of several images I captured using the LCD screen on my Nikon SLR camera to line up the center stripe and road with the more distant ridges and peaks. It was as I began working on the image in post production that I then decided to once again try out the sky replacement setting in Photoshop with this image. The sunset and colors with the clouds seemed appropriate for this national park setting. So the skies are part of the Adobe stock images in Photoshop but all else is captured with my Nikon D850 SLR camera. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 5 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

It expanded to include Japan by 1900 and southeast China by 2000 (Figure 3.2).

"Why the West Rules – For Now: The patterns of history and what they reveal about the future" - Ian Morris