Preface

The Slavic Research Center (SRC) of Hokkaido University held aninternational symposium entitled “Eager Eyes Fixed on Slavic Eurasia:
Change and Progress” in Sapporo, Japan, on July 6 and 7 of 2006. Thesymposium was mainly funded by a special scientific research grant fromthe Japanese Ministry of Education’s Twenty-first Century Center of
Excellence Program (“Making a Discipline of Slavic Eurasian Studies:2003–2008,” project leader, Ieda Osamu) and partly assisted by Grants-inAid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion ofScience (“An Emerging New Eurasian Order: Russia, China and Its
Interactions toward Its Neighbors: 2006–2009,” project leader, IwashitaAkihiro).
The symposium started with an opening speech, Martha Brill Olcott’s“Eyes on Central Asia: How To Understand the Winners and Losers.” Theaim of the symposium was to redefine the former Soviet space ininternational relations, paying closest attention to the “surroundingregions” of Eurasia. Well-known specialists on the region came together
in Sapporo to debate topics such as “Russian Foreign Policy
Reconsidered,” “South Asia and Eurasia,” “Central Asia and Eurasian
Cooperation,” “Challenges of the Sino-Russian Border,” and “Russia inEast Asia.”
All of the sessions noted China’s presence in the region. Central
Asian issues and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization were mentioned
in the sessions on South Asia and East Asia. Every participant recognized
the crucial importance of increasing interactions in and around Eurasia.
Eighteen papers were submitted to the symposium: four from Japan, three
from China, two each from Russia and the United States, and one eachfrom Korea, Hungary, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Australia.
As China is a decisive factor in the region, differences within the country-v-should be taken into account: the Chinese speakers came respectively
from Beijing, Shanghai, and Harbin. At the symposium, the SRC showed
the will to function as a hub center for Eurasian Studies on Northeast Asia
as it forges new ties of research cooperation with academic institutions inSouth Asia that share common interests on the topic.
Considering the topics we debated during the symposium were far
reaching and diversified, we decided to invite experts in various specificfields. Five excellent contributions come from Russia, China, India, Korea,and Japan. They covered the new dynamics of the bilateral andmultilateral relations emerging and developing in Eurasia as an entity. The
discussion undoubtedly strengthened the contents of the proceedings.
The second volume is entitled “Russia and Its Eastern Edge.” We
selected eleven papers for Sino-Russian relations, multilateralism forregional cooperation, and the Russian presence in East Asia. As a guide tothe volume, Alexei D. Voskressenski’s contribution is especially useful.
He elaborately depicts the recent rise of China and the transformation ofSino-Russian relations. He also provides a structural overview and clues
on China and Russia in East Asia to add fuel to the discussion on related
topics that are thoroughly reviewed in the volume.
In the fourth part of the series, “Beyond Conflict: A New Era forPartnership in Russia and China?” Neville Maxwell and Dmitri
Ryabushkin had a heated debate on the past “tragedy” of
Zhenbao/Damanskii Island of 1969. Maxwell’s argument firmly places
the incident in the long run of Sino-Russian/Soviet relations. He traces
chronological trends of the relations and shows how China and Russiafinally reached a deal to resolve the deeply troubled border problems. Incontrast, Ryabushkin clings tenaciously to debunking the myth of the1969 incident and ascertaining the truth regarding the following questions:
Which side was mainly responsible for the incident, or why and when was
the island in question de facto controlled by China? Some facts thatRyabushkin found are a must to be considered for researchers.
Nevertheless, interpretations of the incident are not necessarily finalized.
Even if China intentionally planned a “sneak attack” on the Soviet borderguard on the island, failure of the 1964 Sino-Soviet consultation on theborder undoubtedly caused China’s frustration with “unfair” borders that
had been “forced” by the Russian Empire since the late nineteenth century
to peak. Historic judgments both on “intentions” and “structural- vi -background” are always fraught with difficulties. Nonetheless, thediscussion provides rich materials for further analysis and review.
Su Fenglin, a Harbin historian on Russia, suggests a different imageof Sino-Russian relations. His message is that a researcher should not playup the conflictual aspects of relations. His work sheds light on the positive
history of the early period and draws an apt analogy between the past andthe present. Su’s argument serves as a counterbalance vis-à-vis the former
two chapters.
The fifth part of the series, “Multilateralism: An Emerging Test for
Regional Cooperation,” is newly added. Kato Mihoko’s article waspresented at the Third International Workshop for Young Scholars at theSRC on July 5, on the eve of the symposium. She uniquely covers RussiaSoutheast Asian relations. Her contribution is also closely related to thepart on “Russian Foreign Policy Multivectored” in the first volume. Jia
Qingguo and G. V. C. Naidu’s papers presented at the Slavic EurasianSeminar “The Quadrangle on Eurasia: Russia, China, India, the US, andCentral Asia” at the SRC on December 13, 2006. Both articles clarify
some of the new trends in multilateral approaches in East Asia. Jia’sarticle refers to China’s will and policy orientation and gives details on theShanghai Cooperation Organization as an illustration. Naidu’s
contribution touches upon some of the various tendencies ofmultilateralisim, simultaneously considering the “balance game” playedby the great powers.
The final and sixth part of this series, “Russia’s Perspective in theEast Asian Community” is the highlight of the volume. Ha Yongchool andShin Beomshik’s presence provide enlightening accounts of Russia’s
dilemmas in the Korean nuclear crisis. Readers learn much about thelimited but constructive commitments made by Russia as an intermediaryduring the crisis. Feng Shaolei, a talented Shanghai scholar with acommand of both Russian and English, and Sergey Vradiy, a Russiansinologist in Vladivostok, do a great job covering Sino-Russian relations.
The former also conducts comparative studies on Sino-Japanese andRusso-Japanese relations in the whole of East Asia, while the latter pays
attention to the relatively unknown relations between Russia and Taiwan.
Finally, Yokote Shinji wraps things up by explaining the context andstrategic environment emerging in East Asia and tackles Japan’s possible
involvement with Russia.

- vii -The fruits of the contributing authors’ intellectual endeavors aremuch appreciated. It is our goal that these small but important academic
contributions by some of the leaders of our field of study prove to be an
impetus for further academic inquiry. If this goal is achieved, it will beour great pleasure.
This volume greatly benefited from the contribution of Japan’ssinologists, who participated as discussants in some sessions. For thesecond volume, we owe much to Ishii Akira, professor at the University ofTokyo, for playing the role of moderator in the heated debate on theZhenbao/Damanskii Incident. Nakai Yoshifumi, professor of Gakushuin
University, Mifune Emi, associate professor at Komazawa University, andZhao Hongwei, professor of Hosei University, were highly appreciated fortheir contributions to the seminar dated December 13 as mentioned before.
We also thank Takagi Seiichiro, professor at Aoyama Gakuin University,
for offering pertinent comments for all of the papers in the sixth part.
I would like to express unchanging gratitude to Seth Cervantes,
lecturer at Tomakomai Komazawa University, for his special
contributions during the editing phase of this volume. I owe much to Ito
Kaoru for kindly agreeing to take on the laborious task of designing thecover of the volume. I would also like to thank Hosono Mitsue, Okada
Yukari and Miyazaki Haruka for their tireless efforts towards thecompletion of this volume.
Iwashita Akihiro
Editor
Sapporo, 2007

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