Annual Newsletter of the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University		Japanese English	-->List of All Publications-->Annual Newsletter-->no.17
No.17, January 2010

First Year in Retrospective and the Beginning of a "New" Slavic Research Center

Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "Comparative Research on Major Regional Powers in Eurasia" I s Ongoing

The First East Asian Conference for Slavic Eurasian Studies (February 5–6, 2009): How It Was Organized

The Slavic Research Center Held the International Symposium, "The South Ossetian Conflict and Trans-border Politics in the Black Sea Rim" on March 5–6, 2009

The SRC SRC International Symposium "The Elusive Balance: Regional Powers and the Search for Sustainable Development" Was Held on July 9–10, 2009

Joint Forum Series in Washington D.C.

International Symposium on "Environmental Conservation of the Sea of Okhotsk: Cooperation between Japan, China, and Russia"

Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program

Our Current Staff

Ongoing Cooperative Research Projects

Visitors from Abroad

Guest Lectures from Abroad

Publications (2008-09)

The Library

Website Access Statistics

Essays by Foreign Fellows
Andrew Gentes	Dariusz Kołodziejczyk	Marina Mongush

The SRC SRC International Symposium
"The Elusive Balance: Regional Powers and the Search for Sustainable Development" Was Held on July 9–10, 2009

The first international symposium for the scientific project, “Comparative Research on Major Regional Powers in Eurasia,” was held at the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, on July 9–10. This project is funded by the five-year Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas, supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Japan. The title of the symposium was “The Elusive Balance: Regional Powers and the Search for Sustainable Development.” There were five sessions that compared the economies of Russia, China, and India from various viewpoints, including macroeconomics, energy, environment, poverty and inequality, and historical developments. There was also an additional session in which scholars from South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) discussed border issues.

A scene from one of the sessions

The above-mentioned project included six research groups, one of which examined the possibility of sustainable economic development for the regional powers, headed by Professor Akira Uegaki of Seinan Gakuin University. It was this research group that organized this symposium. Four researchers of this group presented papers. Although this project started only last December, these papers gave us a preliminary result of the comparison of the regional powers, especially in the studies of macroeconomics and poverty and inequality. In addition, from sessions on energy and the environment, we learned the importance of these issues for the socio-economic development of these regional powers, as well as the importance of these regional powers in finding a solution to these global issues.

In the last session, economic developments of regional powers for the last several centuries were compared both by macroeconomic and inequality indicators. Two presenters attempted to provide an alternative picture and explanations for the catch-up of some East Asian countries from the state of “Great Divergence” between Western and developing countries.

Sixteen papers were presented altogether. From abroad, ten scholars were invited, including five from South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan), two from East Asia (China and Hong Kong), and one scholar each from Russia, Finland, and the United Kingdom. It was probably the first time in the history of the SRC that we invited only one scholar from the Slavic Eurasian area for an international symposium. Most papers presented at the symposium will be included in Comparative Studies on Regional Powers, No. 2, which will be published soon.

Speakers of the Symposium

SATO Takahiro (Kobe University, Japan) “External Openness and Firm Productivity in China and India: Evidence from Business Enterprises’ Surveys”

UEGAKI Akira (Seinan Gakuin University, Japan) “Balance of Payments in Comparative Perspective: China, India and Russia under Globalization”

HORII Nobuhiro (Kyushu University, Japan) “Bottlenecks in China’s Energy Supply: Policy Solutions or Market Solutions?”

Shebonti Ray Dadwal (Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, India) “Energy Security: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for India”

David Dusseault (University of Helsinki, Finland) “Where Has All the Oil Gone? Contradictions among Russia’s Socio-economic Development, Political

Legitimacy and Corporate Profits”

KAMEYAMA Yasuko (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan) “Japan in the Midst of Multilateral Negotiation on the Future Framework for Climate Change”

PANG Jun (Renmin University, China) “China’s Energy-Environment Problems and Some Issues related to Post-Kyoto Arrangement”

Ambuj Sagar (Indian Institute of Technology) “Developing Countries and Climate Change: Exploring the Way Forward”

Mushtaq A. Kaw (University of Kashmir, India) “Border Politics in the Heart of Eurasia: A Case Study of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan”

A. Ghafoor Liwal (Regional Studies Center of Afghanistan) “Areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Present Turmoil”

Sarfraz Khan (Peshawar University, Pakistan) “Special Status of Tribal Areas (FATA): An Artificial Imperial Construct Bleeding Asia”

TAKEDA Yuka (Waseda University, Japan) “Is Russian Economic Growth Pro-Poor?”

IMAI Katsushi (Manchester University, UK) “Poverty and Vulnerability in India and China”

Ruslan Yemtsov (World Bank) “Through the Looking-Glass: What Is behind Official Data on Inequality in Russia over 1992–2003?”

Vladimir Popov (New Economic School, Russia) “Why the West Became Rich before China and Why China Has Been Catching Up with the West since 1949: Another Explanation of the ‘Great Divergence’ and ‘Great Convergence’ Story”

SAITO Osamu (Hitotsubashi University, Japan) “Income Growth and Inequality over the Very Long Run: England, India and Japan Compared”

TABATA Shinichiro