The annual Winter Symposium was held at SRC on January 25-28, 1996.
Foreign guests were Frank Umbach (Japan Institute of
International
Affairs), Michael Korzec (Leiden University), Evgenii
Gavrilenkov (Hitotsubashi University) and the Foreign Visiting
Fellows of SRC: Vojtech Mastny (USA), Jadviga Staniszkis
(Poland),
Li Jingjie (China) and Vladimir Popov (Russia). The
proceedings
of the symposium, Socio-Political Dimensions of the Changes in the
Slavic-Eurasian World, published in March, 1996, include seven
English
language contributions.
The 1996 International Symposium, "The Emerging New Regional Order
in Central and Eastern Europe," was held at SRC on July 24-27, 1996.
Overall, a hundred scholars participated. Foreign guests were Ivan
T. Berend (University of California Los Angeles), Laszlo Csaba
(Kopint-Datorg Institute), Andrzej Rudka (Institute for East
West Studies), Pertti Joenniemi (Center for Peace and Conflict
Research), Ivo
Samson (Slovak Institute for International Studies), Jiri
Sedivy (Charles University), Vitalii Zhurkin (Institute of
Europe,
Russian Academy of Sciences) and Witold Morawski ( Foreign
Visiting
Fellow of SRC). In addition, papers were presented by Japanese
scholars: Taku Shinohara (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies),
Akira
Uegaki (Seinan Gakuin University), Yoshikazu Hirose
(Yamanashi
Gakuin University), Susumu Nagayo (Waseda University), Tsuneaki
Sato (Professor Emeritus, Yokohama City University), and Yoko
Iwama (Kyoto University). The proceedings of this symposium will be
published
in a volume edited by Tadayuki Hayashi and Osamu Ieda.
The annual Winter Symposium will be held at SRC on January 30 -
February 1, 1997. The 1997 International Symposium is being organized
for July 17-19, 1997, in Sapporo focusing on national and ethnic
problems in the Slav-Eurasian world .
Impressions of the SRC Symposium
by Ivan T. Berend (Professor of History; Director of the Center
for European and Russian Studies at the University of California Los
Angeles)
The Slavic Research Center
at
Hokkaido University (SRC) had chosen an excellent topic for its annual
international
meeting. The complexity of the approach was expressed by the broad
range
of historical, economic, social, cultural, and political problems
discussed
in eight sessions in the framework of the emerging new regional order
in
the Central and Eastern European area. What is the "regional order"
emerging
in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s? Is there a "Central Europe"
at
all? What are the main characteristics of post-communist
transformation? Is
a Western free market economy in the making, or, would a different
model be
more adequate for the relatively backward countries of the region? What
is
the social cost of transformation? Will this process lead toward
integration into the European Union? What is the role of NATO in the
process? Is it an antechamber of the EU? How does Russia react to the
possible inclusion of the Central European countries in NATO? Would a
regional integration help, or, function only as a substitute of the
creation of a united Europe? Do
the "Visegrad countries" really want a regional integration?
These and several other essential questions were in the focus of the
debate.
SRC selected the speakers of the conference with great expertise and
care. Beside the Japanese East Europeanists, Russia, Poland, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, were equally well-represented by very
good scholars an excellent combination of the older and younger
generations. Besides
the quality of the participants, I was deeply impressed by the
atmosphere
of the meeting. Representatives of the Central and Eastern European
countries sat together, openly discussed, agreed and disagreed, but
always understood each others. Signs of nationalistic approaches were
not present at this
meeting. As one of the participants jokingly noted: Central and East
Europeans
have to come to Hokkaido to sit so peacefully together with such
understanding.
SRC, as a real national center, also attracted the best experts of
Japan. Beside the leading Japanese participants arriving from the
entire country, at least sixty participant were present at each session
during two and half days. It made a great impression that Japan has
such an outstanding central institution, a national Center for "Slavic"
(meaning Central and East European) studies that can, indeed, mobilize
experts from the entire country to discuss together the most important
scholarly and political questions regarding
the area.
The organization of the entire conference was excellent and guaranteed
good presentations, and vivid debates on real and central questions.
During the last six-seven years I have participated at dozens of
scholarly conferences on East European transformation in the United
States, Western Europe and Central Europe and consequently have a solid
basis for an international comparison. On that very basis I should like
to state that the Sapporo conference was one of the best I have ever
participated in on the post-communist transformation in Central and
Eastern Europe. The high scholarly level and the well-chosen focal
questions resulted in important conclusions, requiring the reflection
of those dealing with or working in the region. Considerations
developed by the conference on economic, security, and social policy
issues are valuable not only for academics but also for policy makers
and politicians.
At last I should like to express my admiration and congratulations to
Professors Hayashi, Ieda and the entire faculty and staff of SRC for
initiating, organizing, and realizing such a successful conference of
the highest international standard.
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