2. Research Plans for the Academic Year 2000-2001

　

　

Project Management Unit

Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo
Unit Leader: SATO Tsugitaka

　

Islamic Area Studies Project Management Office
The University of Tokyo, Bungakubu Annexe
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Tel: +81-3-5841-2687 Fax: +81-3-5841-2686
E-mail: i-office@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp
URL: http://www.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IAS/

　

Project Management Unit: Research Themes and Activities

Our Islamic Area Studies Project is divided into six units under the supervision of the Project Management Unit: "Unit 1: Thought and Politics in the Islamic World", "Unit 2: Society and Economy in the Islamic World," "Unit 3: Nations, Regions and Islam," "Unit 4: Geographic Information Systems for Islamic Area Studies," "Unit 5: Islamic History and Culture," and "Unit 6: Source Materials for the Study of Islamic Civilization." Although these units conduct their own research themes independently, the themes are closely linked; and during the course of the five-year project we must join the research results organically. The role of the Project Management Unit is the coordination and unification of the overall project, for which we have constructed the following six plans for this academic year:

　

1) The Project Management Unit will oversee all six research units and their sub-groups, holding Project Management meetings and the General Assembly in order to regulate and unify the activities of the project as a whole. The General Assembly entitled "The Gulf War as History" will be held on July 8 at The University of Tokyo.

2) The Islamic Area Studies Series, published in both English and Japanese, is the core publication of our research. We aim to take the remaining two years to improve the quality of our reports and discussions concerning each theme developed over the past three years. We will aim to produce a holistic research reflecting the dynamism of the Islamic world today by putting emphasis on "comparative methodology" and the "historical axis." Having already published two volumes of the IAS Series in English, we will be working on the succeeding volumes.

3) The Project Management Unit will be leading comparative studies among geographical areas by putting together the results of the various area studies conducted separately during the course of this project. By emphasizing "comparative methodology" and the "historical axis," we will bring further to light specific qualities of and issues concerning each branch of area studies. This outlook will be explored in our session at the Oslo conference in August (the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences) where we will discuss "Muslim Societies over the Centuries: Symbiosis and Conflict in Comparative Aspects."

4) Our work in utilizing the latest of computer technology to the benefit of area studies has been finally seeing results in several projects after the first three years of preparation. Our upcoming role as the Project Management Unit will involve adjusting and unifying each of these projects while supporting their overall development.

5) Next year, from October 5 through 8, 2001, we will host the international symposium "The Dynamism of Muslim Societies: Toward New Horizons in Islamic Area Studies" where our research results will be presented. The Project Management Unit will play a central role in planning for this important symposium, where we hope to institute new directions in our future research of Islamic areas.

6) New Project: "Rethinking Arab-Japanese Relations: From the Experience of the Arabian Oil Company, Ltd."

Project Leader: MIZUSHIMA Takio (The University of Tokushima)

From 1957 through 1958, mining concessions for crude oil were granted for the first time to a Japanese enterprise. As the agreement involved a location on the continental shelf bordering on the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the enterprise signed an agreement first with Saudi Arabia, and then the Arabian Oil Company, Ltd. (AOC), which inherited all rights and duties from it, signed an agreement with Kuwait. Since the discovery of a commercial quantity in 1960, AOC has been one of the steady routes for crude oil shipped to Japan from the area. However, the agreement with Saudi Arabia ended in February 2000, and Japan is presently moving to renew its pact with Kuwait.

It cannot be denied that this forty-year relationship with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait has served Japan with not only an economic base for development, but also an increase of political, historical, and cultural understanding towards the Middle East. Consequently AOC's contract renewal process not only drew the interest of the government and concerned enterprises, but also of many other individuals involved with the Middle East. And it is hoped that the recent failure to renew Japanese mining rights with Saudi Arabia will not hurt the mutual understanding built up over the decades between the two Arab nations and Japan.

To prepare for the future means adjusting the present to withstand the retrospective gaze. It is necessary at the present to re-examine and understand the meaning of Japan's forty-year relationship with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and this research group plans to do exactly this. We will utilize the remaining two years of the IAS Project to this end. This year we will focus on gathering as many resources as possible on AOC, including interviews and overseas research. In the second year we will organize this accumulated information point by point.

We would like to conduct a comparative study of various viewpoints on the issue, taking into account views of the Japanese, the oil-producing countries, and the major petroleum companies. We will also look at journalism in each of the concerned countries in order to better understand the topic, also addressing technological aspects in our research. Where, along with our research, we find the necessity to produce a collection of data, we will compile it with permission from the sources.

　

Project Management Unit: International Exchange

Scholars to be sent abroad

- KOMATSU Hisao will meet with CNRS scholars to discuss editing the English publications as well as plan for the upcoming IAS International Workshop. May 25-29, 2000. Paris.

- SATO Tsugitaka, KOMATSU Hisao, NAKAZATO Nariaki, and SATO Kentaro (The University of Tokyo) will participate in the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences. August 7-11, 2000. Oslo.

　

Scholars invited from abroad

- Manuela MARIN (Instituto de Filologia)

Abdel-Karim RAFEQ (Damascus University)

Felice DASSETTO (Universit� Catholique du Louvain)

Mushirul HASAN (Jamia Millia University)

The above four members will be invited to participate in our session at the Oslo conference. August 7-11, 2000.

- Bert FRAGNER (Bamberg University, Germany) will plan collaborative research with Islamic area studies scholars in Germany, and present his research on the Eastern Islamic world and modern Central Asia. September 25-October 9, 2000. Tokyo and Kyoto.