also been a participant in Moscow meet-ings of privatization advisors. Wedel used the data collected by participant observa-tions and by interviews with insiders. We can surely agree that Wedel has overcome the obstacles mentioned in the beginning, the access to hidden data and its unavaila-ble context. She has just used well docu-mented examples.
In “Shadow Elite”, there is no systematic theoretical background. Wedel uses diff er-ent ideas from classic and modern scholars in an easy manner. Th e reasoning is some-times not clear mainly because of the so-phisticated narration and non-intuitive ter-minology. Th e theses are oft en too strong for the argumentation. But there is still a wealth of evidence. Wedel manages rather to impress the reader than to prove her the-ses. Some ideas of Wedel are surely brilliant. She states important questions and off ers original answers. What makes Wedel’s book so valuable is that it also contains useful heuristics for other researchers.
Maciej Gurtowski
Joanna Piechowiak-Lamparska: Th e Re-port on the 4th International Scientific Conference Contemporary Asia. Politics
– Security – Economy – Culture
Th e 13th and 14th of May 2010 were the days when the Fourth International Scientific Conference Contemporary Asia. Politics – Security – Economy – Culture took place. Th e conference was organized by the Asian Pacifi c Society, Faculty of Political Sciences
and International Studies at Nicolaus Co-pernicus University and Adam Marszałek Publishing House under the honorary pa-tronage of the Minister of Foreign Aff airs Mr. Radosław Sikorski, the Marshal of Cu-iavian-Pomeranian Voivodship Mr. Piotr Całbecki and the President of the City of Toruń Mr. Michał Zaleski with the support of His Magnifi cence the President of Nico-laus Copernicus Uniwersity Professor, Ph.D. Andrzej Radzimiński.
Th e conference was a subsequent stage of series of conventions taking place in Toruń from 2007. Dr. Joanna Marszałek-Kawa, the initiator of the meeting, once again organized one of the most important scientifi c events in Poland concerning the subject of Asia1. A lot of organizational
as-pects of the conference deserve attention. One of them is the publication of the meet-ing results in the form of monograph2,
di-versifi ed in respect of subject. What is im-portant, especially for scholars taking part in this conference, materials are collected in reviewed volumes. Both the subject matter and the earned prestige of the conference allowed many scholars from Poland and from abroad to meet. Th e invitation to this conference was accepted, among others, by Professor Miao Huashou and Associate
1 I International Scientifi c Conference Asia – Politics, Economy, Political System from 2007; II International Scientifi c Conference Th e Role and Place of Asia in the Contemporary World from 2008; III International Scientifi c Conference Th e Faces of Asian statehood. Aspects of Civilization, Culture, Politics, Law, and Economy from 2009.
Professor Liu Lian from the Academy of In-ternational Relations at People’s University in Beijing, Dr. Arusyak Julhakyan from the University of Warsaw, Dr. Mukhit Sydyknazarow from L.N. Gumilyov Eura-sian National University in Kazakhstan or Dr. Hayssam Obeidat from the Jagiellonian University. We could also fi nd employees from all important scientifi c centres in Po-land; among others, from the University of Warsaw, the Jagiellonian University, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Uni-versity of Wrocław, Higher School of Social Psychology in Warsaw, University of Łódź, University of Szczecin, University of Gdańsk or at last, from Nicolaus Copernicus Uni-versity in Toruń.
During the conference almost 80 reports were delivered and were listened to by over 120 people – scholars, students, specialists, diplomats and offi cials. Th e presence of rep-resentatives of Embassy of the People’s Re-public of China, or Embassy of the ReRe-public of Azerbaijan, and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs and local au-thorities should be also underlined. The interdisciplinary character of the meeting allowed in principle to raise any possible subject concerning Asia. Th e subjects were assigned to four panels entitled: Politics, Se-curity, Economy, and Culture. Only a part of the expressed views were included in the following report.
Th e conference began with plenary de-bates In Collegium Maximum. Th e panel was chaired by Professor, Ph.D. Krzysztof Pałecki, and Professor, Ph.D. Jerzy Jaskier-nia, Professor, Ph.D. Jarosław Piątek,
Profes-sor, Ph.D. Zbigniew Wiktor, ProfesProfes-sor, Ph.D. Edward Czapiewski, Professor, PhD. Hen-ryk Hermann, Professor, Ph.D. Małgorzata Pietrasik, and Professor, Ph.D. Jacek Sobc-zak presented their papers. It was undoubt-edly the most interesting panel, both in terms of lecturers, and in terms of the dis-cussed subjects. The lecture of Professor Jaskiernia entitled Th e Signifi cance of Asia in the Common Foreign Policy and Security of the European Union fi nished with an in-teresting conclusion that “the vital motiva-tion for diplomatic activities of the Euro-pean Union in Asia may be creating the multi-polar system in place of the domi-nance of the United States of America in the international arena. Th e one-polar model is not in the interest of the EU, with no regard to how useful the relations with the United States might be”. Equally interesting subject, also belonging to the macro scale, was dis-cussed in the paper of Professor Piątek en-titled To Understand the Strategy of Contem-porary China, to Understand the Future. Th e author claims that presently China is so sig-nifi cant and active an actor of the interna-tional political and economical scene, that without the thorough analysis of tactics of this country the right judgment concerning the future of the world cannot be made. Th e location of Middle Kingdom among the most important players in the international arena indicates constant increase of signifi -cance of China together with, among others, the United States and the European Union. Th e lecture of Professor Sobczak, who in his paper entitled Uigurians – the Forgotten Na-tion menNa-tioned the more and more urgent
problem of ethnic minorities in China, was also very signifi cant. In the light of the re-ports on persecutions and tough policy with regard to citizens of Sinkiangu, it is visible that the world forgot about the 9-million nation. All lectures of the plenary panel were characterized by noticeable care in preparation, and by interestingly advanced theses.
Aft er the opening ceremony and plenary debates, the participants were divided into two teams which were parallelly discussing Asian politics and culture. Th e fi rst panel, which concerned politics, was conducted by Professor, Ph.D. Edward Olszewski. One of the most signifi cant papers – On the Cosmo-politan Vision of Human Rights in the Con-text of the so Called Asian Values Accusation, presented by Professor, Ph.D. Bartosz Wo-jciechowski – discussed the controversial concept of separation of the Western and Eastern worlds. Th e question of diff erent understanding of values, that is so oft en ad-dressed by many international organiza-tions, leads to disparate views on the rights of individuals and groups. Th erefore, fi nd-ing a way to reach consensus of opinion should become a priority in the interna-tional dialogue. Th e author of the subse-quent significant paper Professor, Ph.D. Maciej Franz posed an important question: Is China Ready to Perform the Role of a Glo-bal Military superpower? As it was noted by the professor, China is not only an econom-ic superpower of a diff erent culture but also a huge, impossible to estimate military pow-er. Th e impressive military potential of Mid-dle Kingdom is not subordinate to the
gov-ernment since it is the comunist party that supervises military forces. Th is system of dependence, so opposite to the Western one, raises a question whether it will be suffi cient to counterbalance such powers as the Unit-ed States.
Th e second part of the panel devoted to politics was dominated by international matters. Th e speeches concerned Armenia, Iraq, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. Muk-hit Sydyknazarov, Ph.D. presented an out-line of the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the European Union in the fi elds of sci-ence and education. Th is issue seems to be of high signifi cance, especially with regard to the formation of civil society. Two of the presentations concerned Turkmenistan. Ksenia Kakarenko, MA presented a refl ec-tion on the political system, and Mariusz Marszewski discussed the question of le-gitimation of authorities in the independent Turkmenistan.
Th e second debate was chaired by Pro-fessor, Ph.D. Anna Chmielak and ProPro-fessor, Ph.D. Adam Jelonek. Th e panel Culture con-stituted a platform for discussion on phi-losophy, religion, value systems, law, and legacy of Asia. Th e fi rst part thematically oscillated mainly around Confucianism and its diff erent aspects. Dr. Adam Małachowski put forward the issue of virtue as the natural conduct for spiritual forming of social and political community according to St. Th o-mas and Confucius. While Sławomir Strom-ski, MA compared the concept of the man in the discourse of these two thinkers. Dr. Łukasz Dominiak compared the ethical tra-dition of Confucius with Aristotle and the
Th omistic School. During the second part of the panel the participants focused on the religious systems and social-religious doc-trines. Dr. Sławomir Drelich in his paper referred to the refl ection on social and po-litical ethics propagated by Mahatma Ghan-di. Th e attempt to diagnose the social situa-tion of Muslims in China was made by Paulina Parcewicz, MA, while the presenta-tion of Dr. Veronika Belyaeva concerned the nation-forming aspects of the infl uence of shamanism and Buddhism on Buryat society.
On the second day of the conference, there were three parallel panels: Politics, Economy, and Security. Th e fi rst part of the panel, related to the politics of Asia, led by Professor, Ph.D. Jerzy Jaskiernia, concerned the energy issues and bilateral relations among countries. China’s demand for fuels was the issue that Professor, Ph. D. Piotr Mickiewicz focused his paper on. Th e re-port concerned the infl uence of the energy sector on China’s policy on Middle Asia. Complementary to the fi rst paper was the lecture of Marta Zobeniak, MA entitled Geopolitics of Resources in Central Asia and the lecture of Przemysław Adamczewski, MA “Geopolitical signifi cance of Azerbai-jan”. Th ese three papers enabled, quite pre-cisely, to familiarize with the problem of fuel sources consumption and diversifi ca-tion.
Th e second part of the panel, led by Pro-fessor, Ph.D. Piotr Mickiewicz, thematically oscillated around the issues concerning Asian countries in international relations and around particular political and social
conditions of the nations. Dr. Grażyna Strnad presented two interesting papers on Korea. Th e fi rst concerned the problem of denuclearization of North Korea, which is, undoubtedly, an immense challenge for both individual states and international or-ganizations. In her second appearance, the lecturer discussed the strategy of reconcili-ation between North and South Korea. Th e author presented Th e “Bright Sunlight” Pol-icy, and tried to make predictions for the future of Korean internal dialog. Lika Mkrtchyan, MA, in her paper, discussed the subject of relations between Turkey and the European Union. Th is problem has been present for many years in the EU politics, but, so far, it has not received satisfactory solution for both sides. Another important subject was taken up by Dr. Jakub Potulski. He discussed the international cooperation between Russia, China and India.
Next was the panel Economy, in the fi rst part led by Professor, Ph.D. Zbigniew Wik-tor. Th e meeting was dominated by incred-ibly fast development of India, and by the problems connected to globalization and integration of Asian Area. Dr. Hayssam Obeidat, in his speech, discussed the rela-tions between India and the countries be-longing to the Cooperation Council For Th e Arab States of Th e Gulf. Th is strategic part-nership formed to develop political, eco-nomical, and military cooperation can change the balance of forces in the region. Th e complementary paper was the appear-ance of Dr. Karolina Klecha-Tylec, entitled Th e Currency Integration of the Persian Gulf states – the Perspective of Introduction of
a Common Currency. Th e author completed the information concerning the organiza-tion itself and made predicorganiza-tions for its fur-ther development in the context of plans concerning forming the currency union by such states as Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates. Th e subject of India was also mentioned by Dr. Grzegorz Ronk, who gave an account of bilateral relations between Great Britain and India at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and by Agata Wan-cio, MA in the paper entitled Indian Tran-snational Corporations‘ Investments on the Global Market – Tendencies and Perspectives. Th ese lectures gave feasible thorough ex-amination of economic issues concerning India. Extremely important subject of glo-balization in this region was entered into by Professor, Ph.D. Grzegorz Piwnicki. He dis-cussed the infl uence of globalization on the economy of the East-Asian states.
Th e second part of the panel, led by Pro-fessor, Ph.D. Ewa Oziewicz, was dominated by the subject of Japan and China, and by economic relations of Asian states. Th e is-sue of Japanese investments in Australia was outlined by Dr. Mieczysław Sprengel, and energy foreign policy of Japan was dis-cussed by Michał Paszkowski, MA. Japan, as one of the stablest Asian states, is very interesting object of economic analyses. Equally interesting is the development and characteristics of economic and commercial cooperation between Asian states and the Russian Federation, and Latin American states – this issue was presented in turn by Swietłana Sydun, MA and Dr. Edyta Chwiej. Also in this panel, the methods of coping
with the world crisis by China were dis-cussed. Luiza Kostecka, MA claimed that Middle Kingdom came away unscathed from the threat of production crisis and the danger of growing unemployment. China was also the subject of the report of Ale-ksandra Jaskólska, MA, entitled Economic Expansion of India – Will “made in India” replace “made in China”? In her lecture the author asked a very important question about whether the majority of world pro-duction, so far placed in China, will move to cheaper and having friendlier law and tax system for entrepreneurs, India.
Th e last panel, led by Professor, Ph. D. Jarosław Piątek, was Th e Security panel. Th e fi rst part of the panel was dominated by is-sues concerning confl icts. Th e genesis, ef-fects and predictions concerning controver-sial issues, in which Asian states are entan-gled were brought under debate. Professor, Ph.D. Maciej S'zczurowski discussed the strategic aims of security policy of China. Th is is a permanently topical item because the defence sector is one of the most impor-tant sectors in Middle Kingdom’s economy and politics. Th e reasons for armed confl icts in Asia were presented by Dr. Karol Kościelniak. While Dr. Krzysztof Czubocha explained the causes of confl icts and separa-tist activities within the states. As the main factor he mentioned “the lack of interior sta-bility of many Asian states, determined by complicated ethnic, racial and religious rela-tions”. Th e issue of the confl ict on the Ko-rean Peninsula was raised by Dr. Marceli Burdelski. He discussed the possibility of transforming armistice into peace treaty.
Th e second part of Th e Security panel was dominated by Chinese issues. The probem of military cooperation among the Russian Federation, China, India, and other countries was discussed by Col Tadeusz Krząstek. Th e paper entitled Keeping and Development of Marine Forces as the Ele-ment of Security on the Area of Far East Asia was presented by Professor, Ph.D. Maciej Franz, who determined a navy as one of the most signifi cant elements of state defensive systems. Th is thesis is justifi ed, especially because of the insular character of some countries. A very interesting question was stated by Dr. Wojciech Wiejacki. In his lec-ture, he said that China is becoming more and more signifi cant player on African and South American stage. Africa, as the area of infl uence, is currently contested by Euro-pean countries as well as by Middle King-dom.
Th e conference was fi nished with the panel in which all moderators participated. An excellent summary and synthetic clusion from the lecturers’ appearances con-stituted the discussion entitled Have We
Entered the Age of Asia? All papers indicated the rise of importance of Asia in the inter-national arena. Politics, security, economy, and culture in the world cannot be dis-cussed without taking into account Asian states.
Th e conference was undoubtedly one of the most signifi cant scientifi c events con-cerning the subject of Asia. Impressing was both the number of lecturers and the audi-ence taking part in the meeting as well as the organization of the conference itself. Th e 4th Conference was a thematically rich platform of exchanging knowledge, views, and predictions. The materials gathered during the conference will be, according to custom, published in the form of reviewed publications. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the organizers also took care of the en-tertaining part, which helped strengthen relations among the scholars from diff erent countries and scientifi c centres. Th e added value constitute, expressed by all partici-pants, declarations of return to subsequent edition of the conference in 2011.
