Building on trust and mutual respect established over a twenty-five year history of working in Asia, PISA prepares leaders for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century and mobilizes networks of scholars, policy makers, and advocates on both sides of the Pacific to address urgent national and transnational concerns.

Director's Note

Although Finland, where I am a visiting fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, is experiencing its coldest winter in 25 years, policy makers have not lost sight of the need to act on global warming. I just returned from a meeting organized by the Finnish Institute for International Affairs addressed by H.E. Mohamed Nasheed, President of The Maldives on the topic of Leadership in Climate Change. A central point of his talk is that notwithstanding the holdouts of "climate skeptics" the scientific case for action on climate change as been established. It is now time for the earth scientists to take a back seat to the economists and military strategists who need to show that action on climate change will improve economic prospects and reduce threats to security. PISA's current work aligns perfectly with President Nasheed's recommendations.

Suzanne Kelly Lyall and I started off 2010 with a round of meetings with partner institutions in Hong Kong, Hanoi and Bangkok to launch a series of new initiatives. In 2010 PISA's activities will expand to include on-the-ground pilot projects, collaborative research, and leadership programs. Check here and the PISAspeak blog for information about the cook-stove project underway in Ban Nhop Village in Son La province in Vietnam. Learn about the Public Forum on Climate Justice held in collaboration with the journal Globalizations in New Orleans last month and soon to be available through the journal as a podcast. Follow our plans for a Regional Leadership Institute on Climate Change with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and a research project on climate change and security in Northeast Asia with Hong Kong University.

We look forward to your engagement in our work as a supporter, donor, network member or participant. Let the Year of the Tiger begin with a roar!