INSTITUTE OF AFRICA, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

On May 17, 2007, a round table on "The Middle East crisis: state and ways to resolve it" was held by the Center for North African and Horn of Africa Studies in cooperation with the Center for Policy Assessments, both divisions of the Africa Institute.

Opening the meeting, Director of the Institute, Corresponding member. RAS A. M. Vasiliev noted that the idea of creating the so-called Greater Middle East was to extend American influence to one of the most important regions of the world and instill democracy in it in the American sense. A. M. Vasiliev called on the participants of the round table to give assessments of the current situation in the Middle East and suggestions on possible solutions to in the region, as well as discuss the role of Russia as a co-sponsor of the Middle East settlement process.

Some of the presentations at the round table were region-wide and problem-oriented. Others focused on the place and role of individual countries in conflict resolution.

G. K. Prozorova (Dip. acad. MINISTRY OF Foreign Affairs OF THE Russian Federation). In particular, she noted that recently there has been an increase in the actions of various countries and political forces involved in the Middle East conflict. Thus, the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Saudi Arabia was unexpected for many. On the eve of the XIX summit of the League of Arab States, held in March 2007 in Riyadh, Saudi-Israeli negotiations were held. All this indicates the expansion of the format of the negotiation process. However, the question arises: is it possible to negotiate for the Palestinians? Of course not. Any negotiation initiative concerning their fate must be accepted by the Palestinian society. A Palestinian referendum should be held on any fundamental issue of such a plan. This also applies to the initiative of the Jordanian King. Israel has not rejected this initiative, but Israeli society itself is currently divided. The issue of an Israeli-Sunni alliance against Islamic extremism is being actively discussed. Recent polls show that 68% of Israelis are ready to give up East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. For the Palestinians, who are currently divided, the establishment of a national unity Government is of particular importance. In this regard, increased pressure is being exerted on Hamas.

K. M. Truevtsev (Higher School of Economics) believes that today is an unfortunate moment for finding a Middle East settlement. The sad fruits of 1947 are still being reaped. One recent example of failure is the failure of negotiations between Barak and Arafat. Based on an analysis of current trends and facts, the speaker believes that Iraq will disintegrate in the foreseeable future, regardless of whether American troops withdraw from its territory or not. A possible agreement between Armenians and Kurds will be an important factor in this process.

Alexander Tkachenko (MSPU) believes that the current solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict are unlikely to contribute to the end of the confrontation in the Middle East. Neither side is interested in ending this conflict. If this happens, the Israelis will lose the opportunity to consolidate the political system that has been developing for decades. The United States will lose an important link in creating a belt of instability around its opponents in the Middle East and will not be able to implement the "divide and rule" principle. The Arabs will not be able to unite in the face of a single threat-

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They will not be able to find sympathy in the West and will lose important financial revenues. Iran will lose an important point of common ground in its views with Sunni Arabs, namely on the common enemy-Israel. And even Russia is in danger of being pushed out of the Eastern Mediterranean, since any resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict will inevitably lead to the establishment of regional hegemony - either Arab or American, but not Russian. Thus, it is more reasonable for Russia to switch from solving the Palestinian problem to cooperation with Iran. Iran is stepping up its policy in the Middle East and is interested in at least a temporary rapprochement with Russia. He is feverishly looking for a foothold in the Arab world and will try to neutralize Turkey, Azerbaijan and the Kurds. Russia should benefit politically and economically from this.

N. M. Tverdynin (MGPU) believes that at present, the danger of various man-made disasters and large-scale industrial accidents, as well as local military conflicts involving the use of tactical nuclear weapons, as well as the threat of using radioactive materials and toxic substances by terrorist organizations has significantly increased in the Middle East and South Asia. A. A. Tkachenko (Institute of Africa) said that at present, new problems have been added to the old unresolved problems in the Middle East conflict, which rather strengthen the positions of opponents of the settlement and supporters of the use of force, in particular the use of terrorist attacks. A stalemate has developed in the Palestinian National Authority. Israel faces a difficult choice. Today, there is no figure in the country capable of leading the nation on a unifying platform. V. I. Gusarov (Institute of African Studies) noted that in 2007, It is 60 years since the beginning of the Middle East conflict. Formally, it was initiated by resolution No. 181 of November 29, 1947 on the division of Palestine into Arab and Jewish States. The entry of Arab troops into the territory of Palestine demonstrated that the then leaders of the Arab countries, starting the war, assumed the heaviest historical responsibility for ignoring the will of the world community. And the main victim of this was the Arab people of Palestine, who were forced to pay for the grave mistakes of the Arab leaders of that era. Hundreds of books and thousands of articles have been written about this conflict. For experts from different countries, several conclusions and circumstances that will determine its further course in the XXI century are obvious.

First, each new generation of politicians and senior military personnel involved in the conflict on both sides made unsuccessful attempts to resolve it by peaceful negotiations or force in their favor, thereby infringing on the interests of the opposite side and making their own mistakes. Well-known UN decisions were either partially taken into account or completely ignored. Secondly, on both sides, in each new generation of politicians and the broad masses of the population, a certain role is played by extremists, their parties, organizations and other forces that did not recognize and do not recognize today even the steps towards each other that moderate politicians have taken. They make extremist demands, which can only lead to further prolongation of the conflict. Third, the positions of countries that have provided military, economic, moral and political support to opposing sides have had a huge impact on the course of the conflict throughout its history.

I. A. Denisov (Movement for Democratic Peace and in Support of the UN) believes that since the parties to the conflict cannot resolve it, external influence is necessary to resolve it, including from Russia.

The second group of speeches at the round table was devoted to the positions of individual countries, both directly involved in the conflict and countries with varying degrees of interest in its resolution.

Mikhail Vishnevsky (Institute of Africa) stressed that today the US attempts to achieve a political settlement in the Middle East, primarily the Arab-Israeli conflict, and to bring down the wave of Islamic fundamentalism can be explained by the desire to create a favorable climate for stable trade and economic activity in the region in the era of projected increased rivalry with China and Russia, when these states reach a dangerous level of development for the interests of the United States. Judging by the reports of American experts ("Global Trends-2015" and "Mapping The Global Future-2020"), this mo-

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the cop will come around the beginning of the 20s of our century. At the same time, the political situation in the Middle East is becoming increasingly threatening for the United States, which is due, firstly, to the obvious pro-Israeli tilt in American policy in the region; and secondly, to the consequences of the essentially lost wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of these countries achieved an easy victory that would have allowed the United States to dictate its terms to Islamic fundamentalists. The United States is embroiled in a protracted conflict with forces that seek to achieve peace with the United States and its NATO allies on their own terms, rather than on American ones, by conducting asymmetric military operations.

It can be argued that President Bush's long-term grand plan for a "Greater Middle East" announced in 2003 cannot be fully implemented until either his administration or those who will succeed it recognize the need to respect the views of Islamic fundamentalists and seek a compromise with them.

T. L. Deutsch (Institute of Africa) devoted her speech to the analysis of China's policy in the Middle East. In particular, she noted that until recently, China's relations with the countries of the region were not very active. The situation has changed in the last few years. China is rapidly expanding economic ties with the Middle East region and is looking for new allies to secure privileged access to oil resources, find new markets for its products and technologies, and strengthen its position here in competition with the United States. Today, the share of Middle Eastern oil in the total volume of oil imported by China is 58%. It is expected that by 2015 it will increase to 70%. China's position on the Middle East settlement is in many ways close to that of Russia. Over the past decade, Beijing has been guided by a development strategy that provides for mutual trust, cooperation, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, the formation of a new just world order, etc.The Chinese leadership has consistently confirmed the need for a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict.

Oleg Levin (Russian Foreign Ministry) spoke about the current situation in Lebanon and Syria and Russia's relations with these countries. According to him, Lebanon has almost no territorial problems with Israel. Israel's last war was not with Lebanon, but with Hezbollah. And the majority of the Lebanese population reacted indifferently to this war. A very serious problem for Lebanon is the 12 Palestinian refugee camps located on its territory, in which 350 thousand Palestinians have settled. Lebanon's relations with Syria are very complicated. There is a powerful Syrian "fifth column" inside Lebanon. Russia and Lebanon currently have virtually no economic relations. We have restored with the help of our military builders several bridges destroyed after the Hezbollah conflict with Israel, and the United States and France have provided Lebanon with about $ 20 million to restore the destroyed facilities. Russia currently maintains mainly economic ties with Syria, with oil accounting for 85% of our trade turnover. Graduates of Soviet and Russian universities are a definite factor in our relations.

A.V. Shaidenko (Tula branch of Mosk. University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation), V. Yu. Kukushkin (Institute of Africa), A. I. Biryukov (Moscow), L. Ya. Prokopenko (Institute of Africa).

The results of the meeting were summed up by the head of the Department. The Center for the study of the countries of North Africa and the Horn of Africa is A. A. Tkachenko, who expressed confidence that the speeches will serve to better understand the positions of the parties involved in the Middle East conflict and can to some extent contribute to the search for ways to resolve it.

V. I. GUSAROV

NUSANTARA SOCIETY

The meeting of the Nusantara Society, held on March 1, 2007, focused on the current situation in the Philippines, where two Russian Filipinists recently visited. E. G. Frolova, a teacher of the Tagalog language of the ISAA at Moscow State University, spoke about the language

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the situation and language policy in this country. Having covered the history of the formation of the state language in retrospect, she analyzed the current position of the Filipino language and its relationship with English in terms of functional and intra-linguistic aspects. In particular, she noted that the hybrid Taglish language (Tagalo-English) formed in recent decades has actually taken the place of the state language everywhere, while regional languages play the role of auxiliary languages in schools. V. V. Sumsky (IMEMO RAS) highlighted the current socio-political situation in the Philippines, described his recent feelings from visiting this country as "deja vu", since the situation in the Philippines repeats with surprising uniformity: coup attempts, new elections with an abundance of parties and a great similarity of views and without any prominent figures, populist slogans of candidates from mass culture figures, calls for changing the constitution, etc. All these reruns and remakes, according to the speaker, are an indicator of the time when the real potential for change is running out.

On May 15, at the regular meeting of the Nusantara Society, a joint report on the topic "Orthodoxy in Indonesia" was delivered by E. A. Cherepneva (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) and N. A. Tolmachev (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation). According to E. A. Cherepneva, few people know about the existence of the Orthodox community in this country, although since 1996 publications have appeared in Russian publications, namely in the collections of the Nusantara Society, a joint collection of this society with St. Petersburg.State University, in the collection of the Russian Academy of Sciences dedicated to Southeast Asia, as well as in the Orthodox journal "Thomas" (articles by L. M. Demin, V. A. Pogadaev, E. A. Cherepneva, N. A. Tolmachev, Thomas Halbert). The speaker told about her acquaintance with the founder of the Indonesian Orthodox community Javanese Archimandrite Daniel,

N. A. Tolmachev illustrated the story of the co-rapporteur with photographs of the Archimandrite and other clergy, the decoration of the Russian Orthodox Church parishes in Jakarta, described the flock numerically and by ethnicity, and also spoke about the complex relationships between the communities of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople in Indonesia. At the same meeting, the Nusantar public honored the anniversaries: V. V. Sikorsky, who turned 75, and N. A. Tolmachev, who celebrated his 60th birthday.

T. V. DOROFEEVA

Saint Petersburg

The School of Young Africanists of Russia met for the fifth time in St. Petersburg on November 23-24, 2006. It was organized by the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the Problems of Economic, Socio-political and Cultural Development of African Countries and the Faculty of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg University, headed by Dean E. I. Zelenev and Acting Head of the Department of African Studies A. Y. Zheltov.

Unlike the previous schools, the latter was attended by students and postgraduates of universities that were not previously considered as centers of African studies, in particular, the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH). Its format has also changed. Instead of the reports that preceded each round table, which were delivered by well-known Africanists, rather an exchange of views was held.

The school opened with a welcoming speech by the Dean of the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg.State Institution of E. I. Zelenev. Then, African scientists made brief presentations: V. R. Arsenyev (MAHE RAS) spoke about the state and

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problems of field research in Africa, V. F. Vydrin (MAE) - on the discoveries of linguistic expeditions of teachers and students of the Department of African Studies of St. Petersburg.Yu. N. Vinokurov (Institute of African Studies) tried to reveal the most serious political problems of interstate relations, the culmination of which was the first Pan-African war of 1990-2000, which involved 39 countries of the continent to some extent, not counting states outside its borders. (Rosafroexpertiza) drew attention to the need to apply the theoretical and practical potential of the science of Africa in order to improve relations between the countries of Africa and Russia. V. A. Popov (MAE) analyzed the goals, objectives and content of African studies. Among the traditional disciplines, he singled out civilizational problems. Yu. V. Potemkin (Institute of African Studies) focused on the problems of the continent's economy in connection with the globalization processes in the world.

The topic of A.D. Savateev's presentation (Institute of Africa) was the situation in Russian African studies. He noted significant gaps in research on the African continent, in particular the weakening of international issues (both inter-African studies and with States from other continents). For almost a decade and a half, the legal aspects of the continent's countries have not been studied, knowledge of which is necessary in the implementation of the planned export-import operations of Russian entrepreneurs in African countries. It is necessary to master customs legislation, civil and financial law, and other branches of law of the countries of the continent. Supporting the idea of A. A. Maslov about the need to bring the training of Africanists closer to the needs of life, A. D. Savateev stressed the importance of fundamental training of future African researchers. The second part of his speech was devoted to presenting the main advantages of the civilizational approach, which clearly demonstrates its advantages in African studies.

The presentations of young researchers were divided into three sections: linguistics; social sciences; literature and cultural studies. Social sciences were most solidly represented - two-thirds of the total number of reports. The linguistics section looked more modest - eight reports, writers and cultural scientists presented six reports. They were united by one thing: the desire to join the scientific truth, to have their say in scientific research.

In total, at the 5th meeting of the School, novice researchers made 44 reports. Among them, the conference hosts are students and postgraduates of the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg.GU-6 (3-in linguistics, 3-in history). Participants of the School from RSUH made 14 presentations, ISAA at MSU - 7, Institute of Africa - 5. Two presentations were made by representatives of Yaroslavl University, and one each by envoys from Vologda, Tyumen and Volgograd.

What is striking is the expansion of the geography of young African studies (while ignoring the School by Saratov University, which recently claimed to become almost the second center of African thought in Russia) and, of course, the literally explosive phenomenon of the young growth of the RSUH: the efforts of well - known scientists of the Institute of Africa-V. G. Shubin, A.V. Korotaev, D. M. Bondarenko, I. V. Sledzevsky, A. A. Tokarev and others who have been teaching at RSUH for a long time.

What is the range of interests of the future change of Russian African studies? What do they prefer to study the African reality?

A. Y. Cheskis (RSUH), having planned to highlight the role of Afro-Christian churches in the political life of sub-Saharan Africa in 1880-1960, actually limited herself to describing their activities in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire). P. G. Krug (RSUH) chose social aspects of the activities of the Orthodox branch of Christianity in Africa as the subject of his report. While he provided recent data on the number of Orthodox Christians in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, he unfortunately did not provide estimates for other African countries, nor did he disclose the ethnicity of Orthodox adherents. A narrower, but no less complex task, was set by D. G. Step (ISAA at Moscow State University) - to analyze the pre-Islamic beliefs of Hausa.

The conference participants did not shy away from discussing the most acute confessional problems that have recently acquired acute political significance. O. V. Karpacheva (Institute of Africa) confidently and knowledgeably analyzed the reasons and nature of the change in the ideological positions of the ideologist and the second person.

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I. A. Tsaregorodtseva of Al-Qaeda Zawahiri (RSUH) chose the role of article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution in the modern socio-political life of this state as the subject of her report.

A number of presentations addressed specific country-specific issues. Among them, messages on political topics predominated. Thus, A. S. Stolypinskaya and A. V. Dushak (both RSUH) prepared reports, respectively, on nationalist tendencies in the ideology of official Tunisia after the so-called jasmine revolution of 1987 and new phenomena in the foreign policy of this state. A.V. Volkova (RSUH) analyzed the evolution of the "Egyptian national idea".

The Republic of South Africa (RSA) received the most attention. Both historical and contemporary aspects of social, race, and power relations were considered. A. S. Zdanevich (St. Petersburg) opened a block of speeches on this country.D) A report on the social impact of Afrikaner-indigenous contacts in the northern and north-eastern Cape Colony at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. V. V. Mikhailov (RSUH) examined the causes of black racism and the role it plays in the current political situation. And, as K. S. Movchanyuk (RSUH) showed in her report, the solution of political issues in South Africa must inevitably include the settlement of race relations, which was also confirmed by A. N. Kasimova (Institute of Africa). Having thoroughly researched the problem of transferring power through a democratic procedure, she drew quite good parallels with the political situation in Russia.

Much attention was also paid to Ethiopia: both historical and contemporary problems of internal and external political activity of the state were analyzed. Thus, M. P. Zabolotskikh (St. Petersburg State University) spoke about the first Ethiopian newspapers that expressed the views of the local intelligentsia, E. V. Telitsyn ( ISAA) - about the political system of this country, and V. N. Kravchenko (ISAA) summarized the main features of Ethiopia's relations with Israel and Arab states.

K. S. Kananykhina (Institute of Africa) and Yu. E. Sobolev (Tyumen State University) discussed the role of the University of Ibadan in shaping the intellectual elite of Nigeria and the ethno - confessional composition of the military governments of this country in the 1987-1998's, respectively.

In comparison with the previous meeting of the School, there were few reports on economic topics. S. A. Matsenko (Institute of Africa) provided new data on the impact of foreign capital on the economic development of the continent. The author can be reproached for economocentrism (the social aspect has practically fallen out of the field of his research), however, his speech caused a discussion among the participants of the meeting. V. Y. Zaitsev (RSUH), describing the situation in the railway transport of the continent, came to the conclusion that the length of railways is decreasing, as the volume of cargo transportation is practically not growing. Georgi (ISAA) turned to the history of the diamond business on the continent of the well-known Russian entrepreneur Lev Levaev.

Historical and cultural issues, in particular mythology, were also included in the theme of the 5th meeting of the School. Death in the Myths of sub-Saharan Africa-this story was chosen for the speech by E. S. Baluyeva (RSUH), and Z. V. Sidorova (Vologda Pedagogical Institute. un-t) reviewed the works of the Ghanaian writer A. Tutuola and the Nigerian Nobel laureate V. Shoyinka, in which myth is easily and naturally connected with reality. St. Grachev (RSUH) presented to the audience a description of the rituals that mark the stages of life of the indigenous inhabitants of Cabinda, an Angolan enclave separated from the main territory of the state. Nikitina (MSU) turned to the work of the South African writer Andre Brink, in particular to the analysis of the characters of his humorous stories. And in the sociological reading of the works of the Somali author N. Farah, a version of which was proposed by A.V. Milto (Yaroslavl State University), one could recognize the tragic appearance of modern Somalia.

In the characteristic for the Eastern faculty of St. Petersburg.N. K. Belous ' report on the socio-economic consequences of the caravan trade in East Africa in the 19th century was constructed in a special way, using literary medieval sources and information from social anthropology . The report on a historical topic prepared by A. Z. Tsedenbal (ISAA) - "The Western Sudanese city in the Middle Ages based on the materials of Arabic sources" claimed to be thorough.

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E. E. Tupitsina (Yaroslavl State University) reported on Kwame Nkrumah's stay in the United States, A. V. Gerasimov (RSUH)-on the composition and role of the Arab community in Tanzania, and V. N. Semenova (St. Petersburg State University) - on the main features of Ethiopian iconography of the XV-XX centuries. The original theme was chosen by A. Y. Siim (MAE) - "The African researcher as a subject and object of museology".

Among the reports on linguistic topics, there were reports based on the materials of field expeditions to West African countries: Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast. Here we note the speeches of students of the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg.A. V. Davydov State University - on the ways of expressing the imperative in the Mandinka language, E. V. Kochmar-on the morphology of adjectives in the Gban language, and K. N. Prokhorov-on the reconstruction of the Dogon language. In this part of the program, the Schools also performed IM. Dyakov (St. Petersburg State University), M. O. Dorokhina, E. Yu. Pinchuk, G. V. Kuslii (all-ISAA), N. V. Makeeva (RSUH). The topics of their reports covered languages: Amharic, Swahili, Afrikaans, Zulu, Sandawe, Gban, etc., and in the problem plan - from syntactic constructions and semantics of noun classes to ways of expressing kinship terms.

A.D. Savateev summed up the results of the meetings of the School of Young Africanists. He noted the wide range of issues discussed, the active involvement of students in the research search (starting from the second and third years), the different level of presentations and expressed gratitude to the organizers of the conference, especially the head of Rosafroexpertiza A. A. Maslov, the dean of the Faculty of History, Political Science and Law of RSUH A. Logunov and the director of the ISAA at Moscow State University M. S. Meyer. sponsored a meeting of young talents.

The conference of young researchers showed that Russian African studies has fresh forces and that it is important to preserve the interest and high spirit of current graduate students and students. And then it will be possible to say that African studies in Russia have a future.

A. D. SAVATEEV

KUALA LUMPUR

On March 14-16, 2004, an International Malay Language Speaking Competition for the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister's Cup was held, organized by the Ministry of Higher Education in cooperation with the Institute of Language and Literature (IAL) of Malaysia. The competition was attended by representatives of 24 countries. Russia was represented by O. Vasilevskaya, a third-year student of the Institute of Practical Oriental Studies, who won the selection round held among Russian students studying the Malaysian language. The representative from Russia successfully passed two qualification rounds within the competition and in the final, which was broadcast live on central television, confidently defeated all applicants, including the Malaysian university champion. The topic of her speech is "Can the Malay world bring its own specifics to the world administration in the future?". The winner of the competition, along with the cup, also received a diploma and a cash reward. She was also asked to write a regular column in a magazine published by IYAL. The second place was taken by the representative of Malaysia, the third-by the representative of South Korea (see the final of the contest on the Internet http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5236833043323741038&hl=en).

T. V. DOROFEEVA

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