Yoshihiro Kimura(August 10-30, 1998)

Objects of this field survey are Syria and Turkey. The aims are; to collect materials and information about water resource development and political evolution in the relevant localities; to seek the possibilities for networking with the research institutions and researchers on this survey; and to have an on-the-spot look at present situation of water resource development. It was impossible to observe the spots due to the fiercest heat in 50 years of last summer in the regions around Syria and Istanbul. Therefore, the on-the-spot looking was limited to water supply system in Qalamoun district located in eastern part of the Anti Lebanon mountains, between Damascus and Hims. Most of residual time was spent for collection of materials and information apart from the efforts for mutual cooperations with the research institutions. This report will give an outline of two of the research institutions which members of this survey visited. Those are closely associated with this survey which consumed 80 % of the term in Syria, and with "Economics and the Contemporary Islamic World" (2-b).
A)
It has the headquarter at Mezze-Jabal in Damascus, and has the branches in Cairo and in Sana'a. It is a private research and study institution founded in 1995, and the representative is Ali Nasser Muhammad, the ex-president. According to the leaflet, aims of the Centre are as follows. 1) The future contributions to strategies and policy makings of Arabic nations through the active and extensive researches and studies.
2) Facilitation of comprehensive developments and of cooperations of Arabic nations, offering accurate information to the policy makers.
3) The research and studies on restorations of cultural heritages of Arab and Islam, which enhance and enrich Arabic identities.
4) The calls for the researchers and the private and governmental institutions in Arab to the inclusive development programs.
The Centre also plans some projects to achieve these aims mentioned above. Those are as follows.
1) The studies on reality of Arab in overall aspects to effectuate the wide range and long lasting prosperity and growth.
2) Establishment of Arabic information network.
3) The study on a desirable political position for Arab in the global arena.
4) The study on "the states" in Arabic world.
5) Translations of the strategic researches and studies in the foreign countries about Arabic region into Arabic.
6) Collection and storage of the documents, the periodicals, the books, and the journals, which refer to the situations of Arabic world.
7) Exchanges of knowledge and experiences on present and future issues through the participations and promotions for the forums and conferences.

The Centre equips the office system consisting of 4 departments as follows.
The Information Department (information and library service), The Research and Study Department (relationships between Arab and the world, researches and studies on development, studies on society and history, studies on the security for the Arabic, statistics and the opinion polls, and studies on women and families), The Translation and Publication Department, and The General Affairs and Administrative Department (general, financial, and external affairs)
The Centre is financed by the following: contributions, donations, incomes from enterprises of the Centre, and funding of Mr. Ali Nasser Muhammad. The precise answer about the ratios was not given. The contributions include de facto assistance of affording facilities, such as "free provision of the venue by government of the site" at the international conference, for example.
The Centre does not retain its own researchers. The reality is that it enforces the researches and studies with the academics in Syria, Egypt, and Yemen, where there are its headquarter and branches. The Centre also publishes outcomes of those researches and studies.
The projects mentioned above have been begun one after another, and the results have been published through several journals or newsletters.
The address of the Centre is mentioned below.
The Head-quarter: Damascus P.O.Box 36843
Tel: 224-8422 Fax: 613-2112
The Cairo Centre: 1, El Sadd El Aaly St., El-Galaa Bridge Sq., Dokki, Giza
Tel: 360-6078 Fax: 336-9718
The Sana'a Centre: Sana'a P.O.Box 19829
Tel: 276-934 Fax: 236-062
The Ras Al-Khaima Centre: Ras Al-Khaima P.O.Box 10428, UAE
Tel: 212-766 Fax: 212-977

B)
This Centre is an information center in Damascus, and it has the head-quarter in Baramke, and some branches in the city of Damascus. It also has the domestic local agencies for collecting information.
According to the observation, the head-quarter has the extensive site and enough facilities.
The Centre is the national information center that was set up under the leadership of the directional division in the region of the ruling party. It seems to be funded in abundance. The staff fully computerizes the information to collect, to analyze, and to pigeonhole. The computers are made in Korea and Taiwan, but Japanese machine was not found.
The information is mainly in relation to strategy, which is on politics, economy, statistics, society. The substance includes the manuscripts, newspapers, foregone publications, and photographs. There are wide range of materials since the Ottoman Empire's collapse and establishment of the Arab Government by Faysal in Damascus to the present time.
The Centre keeps 460 staffs including over 160 liaisons. Any researcher or scholar neither holds a full-time position, nor sets up the office. On the other hand, the technical officials for computers, who are mainly the students serving concurrently, hold a full-time position.
The Centre facilitates the researches and studies with the library that possesses more than 300,000 volumes of the publications. Its services, however, are limited only to the research and study staff.
A significant feature of the Centre is that the information collected and analyzed mentioned above is partially provided in Internet data and publication forms. For example, the sales networks for the journals include not only Arabic countries, such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt, but also Greece and Sweden. Those facts are beyond conventional image on Syrian national character.
Syria, however, has another aspects in which police control system of the old "socialism" is actively surviving still. The realities are; the private citizens can hardly visit the Centre apart from the cases like publicities to the diplomatic officials; whole schedule of this visit is perfectly checked up and recorded by some means such as photographs.
Further, the duty systems for the clarks, the managers, and the technical officers are exceptional in Syria. The office-going hours are checked up by computers, and diet and chats on duty are forbidden. The management system have so strong resemblance to that of Japanese business corporations that a Lebanese asked if the Centre employed Japanese management system, when he/she visited it.
The jobs are divided into some groups based on the subject matters, and each leader manages the group. The operation system like a window operation of Japanese bank has been established. It is amazing that there is an exact response to a detailed question about a job of each worker. Obviously the staff is well trained. It is needed for renewing the images on Syrian attitudes toward their vocations.
The "International Information" (quarterly) represents all publications of the Centre. It has been 6 years since its foundation, and the latest issue of the quarterly is number 56. It may be said in this connection that number 56 makes up special edition on water resource. As shown above, this journal is a periodical focusing on strategic studies and information.
Address of the Centre is as follows.
National Information Centre
Syria, Damascus P.O.Box 11323
Tel: 222-7367 Fax: 223-6146

(Impression)
1) Framework of the Project
The theme, "Water Resource Development and Regional Politics of Middle-east Arab", is crucial issue for the region, where faces it at present and will increasingly suffer from this issue in future. It is impossible to discuss on economy and politics in the region without understanding that.
Once, oil controlled political and economic structure in the region. After the 1970's, however, importance of oil has been fading away, as the Middle-east Arabic states were able to control oil by themselves. Thus, the importance of water on regional politics in Middle-east has been actualized in the 1990's. That is, water is a basic factor to hold sway over the future direction not only with an economic aspect of resource development, but also with an aspect of political structure in the region.
That is, importance of the studies on quantity, quality, and contamination of water is unquestionable. The studies on the conflicts within a country and between the regions on the decrease in water resource and its utilization also must be indispensable.
Object of this field work covers Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. Needless to say, other regions, such as Morocco, Egypt-Sudan, Palestine-Jordan-Israel-Syria, the Gulf including Saudi Arabia and Yemen, also should be studied.
2) The studies of social science in Middle-east region are obviously focusing on "strategic studies". The realities of two institutions mentioned above evidently show this tendency, though there is an institutional difference between private and governmental. After 1990 in particular, these "strategic studies" is increasing in the importance, and the states and private organizations have been injecting manpower and funds. "Water issues" are inevitably incorporated into framework of "strategic studies".
3) In terms of these strategic researches and studies, the institutions in the region expect Japan to study Japanese recognition and attitude toward the relationships between Japan and Middle-east, and between Japan and Arab. They also expect Japan to propel the cooperative studies on the direction of future development referring to Japan's experience. For example, "Arab Centre For Strategic Studies" greatly welcomes Japan's participation to the international conference, which the Centre began to hold annually since last year.