An interview with Charles E. Morrison, President of the East-West Center, which successfully bid for Hawai’i to host the 2011 APEC Summit, confirmed that the military presence was a significant factor in the decision to select Hawai’i. We can expect to see intensified militarization of Honolulu in preparation for the summit. When the Asian Development Bank met here in 2001, the Hawaii Tourism Authority bought millions of dollars worth of military-grade weapons, equipment and training for law enforcement agencies in order to suppress dissent.
Obviously the security needs to be good. There’s never been an APEC meeting that’s had any violent protests, but it’s certainly something that people who arrange meetings think about. Everybody expects peaceful protests, and that’s just fine. … Then there’s the general warmth and welcome of the city that’s important. People all over the world know us as a vacation destination; many people just don’t know us as a big international conference site. APEC can change that.
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A lot of emphasis has been placed on security, including the physical security of the leaders. You have the military here, you have great existing, secure facilities, and very close at hand. But the other important aspect about security is street crime. Statistically, Honolulu is (much safer) than San Francisco or Los Angeles. I think that was a major aspect, thinking about all those delegates just walking down the street, their basic safety. … Also, it looked like it was such an easy place to work with, you don’t have umpteen small municipal governments that you have to deal with. … And, of course, the fact that we are truly right in the middle of the Pacific.
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