On November 14, 2001, a regular meeting of the Moscow Intellectual Club "Strategic Matrix" was held on the topic: "The Fourth World War: pro et contra". Club members and guests discussed the situation in the world after the events of September 11 and the beginning of military operations in Afghanistan.

Chairman of the club, Director of the Institute of Economic Strategies (INES) A. I. Ageev called on the audience to exchange views on three key issues: the scale of the problem, leading players and technologies, and Russia's response to this extraordinary challenge of the time.

Opening the discussion, A. I. Neklessa, Deputy Director of INES, emphasized in a brief framework report "Controlled chaos: moving towards a non-stationary system of world relations" that the world has not changed in essence after September 11, but the public consciousness and attitude have radically changed. The construction of a global, hierarchical system of world relations (intra-global relations) on the planet, so different from the former static and formally egalitarian system of international relations (inter-national relations), has become obvious. In addition, a new quality of the world order has clearly emerged - its dynamic, turbulent nature.

The well-known futurist I. V. Bestuzhev-Lada, in his speech "Is the threat of World War 4 real?", assessed the current hierarchy of threats on the planet almost as a threshold for a new type of war. And the president of the Russian Economic Security Agency, former head of the KGB of the USSR, L. V. Shebarshin, noted that to consider the September events in the United States through the prism of a clash of civilizations, he still does not seem too serious. According to F. I. Ladygin, Director General of the Vector Joint Bureau of Information and Strategic Assessments (a former head of Russian military intelligence), the tragic events that shocked America found the country in a state of "strategic confusion".

Experts of the Center for Strategic Research A. A. Gudkov and V. A. Kozlov, as well as the director of the company" Modern Business Technologies " M. L. Khazin covered in detail the economic dynamics of the last year and the general conjuncture preceding the September events, especially noting the difficulties currently experienced by the American economy, the unstable nature of the global situation in general, characterized by a high level of risks. In the world of the twenty-first century, a new system of relations between the North and the South is definitely emerging. A. L. Rybas, Assistant to the Prime Minister of Russia, devoted a significant part of his speech to the urgent need for the country to choose a clear and long-term strategy of action in the modern world. He also noted that in the current difficult situation, a number of influential structures are building their activities on a conspiratorial basis and according to their own rules of the game.

Director of the INES Forecast Center O. V. Dobrocheyev, in his report "Globalization and natural social evolution", drew the audience's attention to the importance of long-term trends in politics and economics, pointing out in this regard the need to implement a series of pilot projects in the field of futorology with a solid forecast horizon.

The following discussion was attended by both club members and invited experts: V. I. Bolshakov, Vice-President of the International Foundation for Slavic Writing and Culture; M. I. Gelvanovsky, Director of the National Development Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Yu. G. Korotkoe, Head of the Department of NPO Energomash; V. N. Saraev, Adviser to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation; G. V. Korotkoe, Employee of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Yu. Sitnyansky, editor-in-chief of the almanac "Security" L. I. Shershnev and others. Despite the difference in opinions and assessments expressed, especially regarding the forms and the very fact of Russia's participation in the Afghan operation, the meeting was generally regarded as very fruitful.

Summing up the results of the November meeting of the club, N. V. Abrosimov, an employee of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, emphasized that conducting such analytical games is very difficult.-

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It expands the range of tools that are so necessary for public services in the difficult circumstances of the modern world.

The Strategic Matrix Club was created on the basis of the Institute of Economic Strategies in order to minimize risks in developing strategic decisions. Well-known scientists and specialists, representatives of analytical centers, business circles, and government agencies participate in its work. At the next meeting of the club, it is planned to review the activities of modern shadow network organizations.

A. I. IVANOV

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INSTITUTE OF AFRICA, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

On September 26, 2001, a meeting of the Academic Council of the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held, where the issue of the worsening environmental crisis in Africa was put on the agenda. V. I. Gusarov and I. G. Rybalkina, employees of the Institute, made presentations.

Currently, the environmental situation in Africa, which has been constantly deteriorating over the past few decades, has sharply worsened and entered a phase of permanent crisis, which has created a real threat to the very existence of African peoples. This crisis is developing in three directions: environmental degradation, with desertification as its extreme manifestation; depletion of water resources; and the rapid spread of the AIDS pandemic.

The peculiarity of the situation is that the environmental crisis overlapped with the political, economic and social crisis that Africa is currently experiencing, and worsened them.

The author of these lines made a report on "The aggravation of the environmental crisis in Africa", emphasizing that the environmental crisis as a phenomenon caused by the constant negative anthropogenic impact on the environment has been developing in Africa for many centuries. However, for a long time the preservation of traditional economic structures and institutions in the same form with a small population of the continent ensured a relative balance of relations between man and nature. The situation changed as the population increased. The main direction in which the deterioration of the human environment on the continent occurred was deforestation. Considerable damage to trees and shrubs is caused by grazing, which causes soil erosion and is one of the factors contributing to the growth of desertification processes.

In 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) defined this phenomenon as " the reduction or destruction of the biological potential of the soil, which ultimately leads to the creation of conditions characteristic of deserts, and is a form of large-scale ecosystem degradation under the influence of adverse and changing climate and overexploitation."

The most common causes of desertification are the transformation of pasture areas into sown areas, overgrazing of livestock, deforestation, exacerbation of the problem of poverty, and an imperfect legal basis for regulating land relations.

Desertification threatens rainfed agriculture. Among the reasons for this are non - compliance with crop rotation and the use of seed material that does not meet the local environmental characteristics and natural and climatic indicators in terms of its qualities. According to some estimates, the annual losses of African countries from the withdrawal of land from economic turnover and due to other socio-economic reasons amount to more than $ 9 billion. Another factor that threatens rainfed agriculture is the use of agricultural machines and mechanisms in African conditions that are designed for other climatic zones and natural conditions.

One of the leading places in Africa in terms of the scale of desertification caused by wind erosion is occupied by Sudan. Its many northern, once inhabited areas have turned into desert and semi-desert areas over the past decades.

Only as a result of wind erosion, the desert annually absorbs a strip of cultivated or cultivated land with a width of 30 to 100 m. In Egypt, for example, the width of such a strip is 50 m per year, and the area under freely moving sandy beaches is less than 50 m.-

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Some 160,000 square kilometers, or 16% of the entire territory of this country, are considered to be natural formations. The steady encroachment of sand seriously threatens primarily oasis agriculture, as well as reservoirs, which, as a result of the constant deposition of sand, are threatened with siltation.

A significant threat to the environment in West Africa is caused by soil erosion and erosion of the Atlantic Ocean coastline, especially in the Gulf of Guinea - in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon. So, in Nigeria, the ill-conceived development of coastal oil fields leads to the fact that coastal erosion "eats" 25-30 m of beaches per year. The shores also become prey to the ocean due to the destruction of mangroves, which play the role of a kind of buffer. Unwise entrepreneurial activity has already led to the irretrievable loss to future generations of 64% of mangroves, 60% of rainforests and 54% of savanna and steppes in Africa.

Currently, Africa annually loses about 70 thousand square kilometers of land suitable for agricultural cultivation as a result of desertification and soil erosion. By the early 1990s , an estimated 17 million hectares of forest had been lost in Africa.

The attention of governments of several African countries to environmental issues was drawn in connection with the discovery of oil and gas fields, the start of their operation and export, the construction of oil refineries and petrochemical enterprises, and gas liquefaction complexes.

The deterioration of the environmental situation required adequate measures from the government and foreign companies. In such countries as Namibia, Libya, Algeria, Swaziland, Tunisia and some others, special programs have been developed to counteract the onset of the desert, lay channels and artificial rivers, use natural underground reservoirs, forestland, landscaping and watering of vast territories. However, the measures taken mainly by oil-producing countries in Africa to improve environmental conditions are local in nature and are not decisive for the continent as a whole.

The second direction of the development of the environmental crisis on the African continent is the aggravation of the problem of water resources. Over the past decades, Africa's water supply has been steadily declining due to the high rate of population growth, which is about 3% or more per year on average for the continent. Water scarcity becomes an insurmountable obstacle to the development of irrigated agriculture, the need to increase which is determined by the tasks of solving the food problem.

The aggravation of the problem of water resources has a negative impact on the provision of drinking water to the population.

Given the urgency of this problem, especially for African and other developing countries, 1981-1990 was designated by the United Nations as the International Decade for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation. However, despite significant progress made during this period in creating environmentally acceptable water supply systems, the program has not been resolved. The constant increase in demand for water from the urban population, as well as industry, increasingly restricts the possibility of additional use of water resources by the rural population and inevitably causes the need to revise the traditional system of water distribution by administrative or fiscal methods.

The third area of aggravation of the environmental crisis on the continent over the past two decades has been the AIDS pandemic. Of the ten most affected countries on the continent, the so-called "African AIDS belt" has formed, which includes Botswana, Burundi, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, CAR and South Africa. According to data published by the United Nations special programme to fight AIDS at the end of 2000, about 20% of the population of the African continent, or about 140 million people, were HIV-positive. In 2000 alone, 2.4 million people died from AIDS. Life expectancy, for example, in Zimbabwe, at the end of the 20th century, due to the impact of mortality from the pandemic, decreased from 65 to 43 years. HIV - positive people occupy almost 40% of hospital beds in Kenya and 70% in Burundi. The United Nations estimates that 10 million people in Ethiopia will die of AIDS in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

But AIDS not only kills millions of people in Africa, but also undermines the already dire economic situation of most of the continent's countries. In the gene report-

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At the special session of the UN General Assembly on AIDS in June 2001, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed that the AIDS pandemic poses a threat to social and political stability. Therefore, it is not only a medical problem, but also a security problem.

The regional specificity of the environmental crisis in Africa also lies in the fact that the socio-economic transformations and reforms that have been carried out and are currently being carried out in many countries of the continent are being implemented in the limited sector of the economy in which commodity-money relations operate. But even in this sector, all market mechanisms for environmental protection could not be fully implemented, since state-owned enterprises receive support for environmental protection measures primarily. Again, private enterprises are not interested in implementing environmental protection measures for economic reasons.

Under these conditions, the development of a free market and the end of the practice of subsidizing individual industries and industries cannot but be mandatory prerequisites for rational use of natural resources. In other words, the creation of a technical and economic base for environmental modernization should be accompanied by socio-economic reforms.

I. G. Rybalkina in her report "On the impact of environmental degradation on the health of Africans" noted that spontaneous hyperurbanization, environmental degradation and unsanitary conditions have a devastating impact on the health of Africans. In addition to the above, the main risk factors include such harmful industries as the extractive industry, primarily oil production, the production of asbestos and pesticides, as well as the export and disposal of nuclear and chemical waste. The United States, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands negotiated with Namibia, South Africa, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and a number of other West African States on the disposal of large-scale hazardous waste in desert regions. African Governments that have already begun to develop national environmental policies and legislation, and are under pressure from local, international, public voluntary or private environmental organizations, tend to show less flexibility in negotiations. As a result, the actions of highly developed countries in many cases begin to take on an illegal character, increasing the scale of bribery of officials and officials.

A disastrous factor for the environment is the demographic explosion that dates back to the second half of the XX century. Overall, the population of Africa has grown from 100 million to over 720 million in the last 100 years.

According to many researchers, birth control is one of the most effective means to prevent ecosystem degradation and famine catastrophe. It is necessary to achieve an average birth rate of up to 2.1 people, which can lead to a stabilization of the world population.

WHO experts and scientists from African countries have repeatedly stressed the need to strengthen work at the government level in three global areas: slowing down, and in the future stopping population growth; protecting the environment from harmful industries; and increasing the role of the human factor in solving environmental problems.

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, various environmental organizations and unions were formed in Africa to counteract the environmental crisis. In 1982, they merged to form the Union of African Non-Governmental Organizations. Among the founders were 21 non-governmental organizations. By the 1990s, the number of participants had grown to 550 non-governmental organizations in 45 countries on the continent.

The environmental crisis in Africa, as part of the global one, cannot be overcome without external assistance, coordinated joint actions and efforts of the international community. The UN and its specialized organizations, especially UNEP, which is headquartered in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, call for special support for Africa. Under their auspices, international and regional programs and projects for the protection and protection of the environment are developed.

V. I. GUSAROV

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N. K. ROERICH CENTER-MUSEUM

On September 10, 2001, the Roerich International Center-Museum (ICR) celebrated the double anniversary of the museum's General Director, First Vice-President of the ICR Lyudmila Shaposhnikova. She turned 75 years old, but she considers another date more significant for herself - 50 years of her scientific activity. And this activity is truly extensive - scientific research, travel to remote areas of India, Central Asia, the Altai, as well as a huge work on the creation of the N. K. Roerich Museum. For ten years, the Lopukhins ' estate, which S. N. Roerich chose to house the museum, was raised from the ruins, the building was restored so that all its architectural features were preserved; it has a beautiful exposition. The ICR is working to preserve and publish the vast heritage of the Roerich family (thousands of unique works of art, books, letters, and personal belongings).

L. V. Shaposhnikova's selfless work for the glory of Russian science, for the glory of the Roerich family was appreciated with high awards. The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences elected her an Honorary academician and awarded her the V. I. Vernadsky Medal, and the Russian Encyclopedia section of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences awarded her the highest award - the Knight of Science and Art Order. The Russian Academy of Arts awarded L. V. Shaposhnikov with the medal "Worthy", this medal was established by Catherine II and has now been revived. The Russian Federation of Cosmonautics also awarded L. V. Shaposhnikova its highest award - the K. E. Tsiolkovsky Medal, and the Znanie Society-the S. I. Vavilov Medal. The Russian Environmental Academy awarded L. V. Shaposhnikova an Honorary member's diploma, and the UNESCO Moscow Office awarded her an honorary diploma.

Prominent figures of Russian politics, science and culture congratulated L. V. Shaposhnikova. Mikhail Gorbachev and Yevgeny Primakov sent their congratulations; on behalf of the Russian Cultural Foundation, Leonid Shaposhnikov was congratulated by the Foundation's President, Nikolai Mikhalkov. Speakers at the event included President of the ICR, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Yu. M. Vorontsov, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences G. N. Fursey, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to India A. M. Kadakin, Director of the J. Nehru Cultural Center of the Embassy of India S. Sinkh, Hero of the Soviet Union pilot-cosmonaut A. N. Beregovoy, Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Sh. A. Amonashvili. Many organizations sent their congratulations, including the UN Information Center in Moscow, the Federation Council Committee on Small Peoples ' Affairs. League for the Protection of Culture, Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, etc.

Both in India and in Russia, the name of the Roerichs has become a kind of bridge connecting two great cultures. In his speech, A. Kadakin noted that the activities of the ICR and related organizations of the Roerichs were echoed by the increased attention of the Indian government to the Roerichs ' estate in Kulu. He called L. V. Shaposhnikova the pride of Russian indology. "Thanks to your efforts and will, the priceless heritage of the Roerichs has become the property of Russia," reads one of the congratulatory telegrams.

A. L. BARKOVA

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Saint Petersburg

The tradition of scientific conferences on historiography and source studies of Asian and African countries at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg State University dates back to 1961. Since then, orientalists from Russia, and now from the near and far abroad, have regularly met every two years to discuss the results and prospects of their work.

The XXI conference was held on April 3-5, 2001. Representatives of the following research centers participated in its work. From St. Petersburg - State University, the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera), a Branch of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Hermitage Museum, the Russian Geographical Society. Library of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg Institute of Judaics, State Museum of the History of Religion, In-

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Institute of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences; from Moscow - ISAA at Moscow State University, IDV RAS, MGI-MO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Military University. Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian State Archive of the Navy. The regions of the Russian Federation were represented by such scientific and educational centers as Amur State University. Kalmyk Institute for Humanitarian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodsk State Pedagogical Institute. The conference was also attended by foreign orientalists from China, Indonesia, Israel, Bangladesh, Turkey, and the United States.

95 reports and presentations were presented in nine sections.

Within the framework of the China section, reports were presented on both traditional topics for the conference (monuments of Confucian thought, traditional Chinese historiography, history of Russian Oriental studies, Russian-Chinese relations, peasant movements in China), and new or revived ones (Manchurian studies, Qing cartography, history of national minorities of China).

In the Japan, Korea, and Mongolia section, the Japanese studies part of the reports was devoted to the analysis of monuments of traditional Japanese historiography ("Oninki", "Instructions of the Takeda House"), concepts of history in Japanese historiography, and the traditional ideology of Confucianism in Japan.

Koreans made presentations on the history and historiography of Korea in the 20th century. Reports on the history of the statehood of Tibet, the history of Mongolia in the 20th century, and Mongolian historiography in the 18th century were also presented.

The South and South-East Asia section covered the following issues:: russian and Indian historiography of the history of India, formation of the image of India in Europe of the XVI-XVIII centuries; traditional historiography of Vietnam, missionary activity of the Jesuits in Vietnam of the XVIII century.

The Turkey Section focused on shaping the image of Russia in Turkish historiography. Turkish researcher Seyit Sertchelik covered this topic in two reports devoted to the era of Peter 1 and, in particular. The Battle of Poltava in the works of Turkish historians and chroniclers. P. N. Milyukov's views on the Young Turk revolution were also analyzed; the effectiveness of using numismatic data in historical analysis was substantiated; the results of the analysis of the Tatar press were presented in order to reconstruct the history of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913).

Reports of the Afghanistan and Iran Section

They were devoted to Afghan and Middle Persian sources, the problems of Baha'ism in modern Russia, the historiography of the history of Christianity in Afghanistan in the 18th and early 20th centuries, and the historiography of the regional transformation of Sufism in the Malaysian-Indonesian area in the 16th and 18th centuries.

The reports presented at the Arab Countries section focused on traditional problems and methods of research of sources and historiography of the history of the Middle East countries in the Middle Ages, modern and modern times. Based on the analysis of written sources, such problems as official categories in the Jewish communities of the Zayanid state at the end of the XIV century, Russia in reference Arabic publications, Islam and education in modern Egypt were revealed (press analysis).

In the Africa section, the topics of the reports, along with the traditional problems of source studies and historiography of the past continent, contained new, promising areas in a wide historical range. This is the analysis of systems of kinship terms as a historical source, the application of methods of sociology and ethnopsychology in historical research. Reports on the archaeology of Africa were presented, as well as the results of studying the African diaspora. The latter direction was recognized as relevant for the current stage of Russian African studies.

At the Central Asia and Caucasus section, traditional issues of source studies and historiography were considered by analyzing the ethnographic substrate of objects of material culture in relation to specific regions - the Caucasus and Kalmykia. A modern approach to creating a database of archival sources on Kalmyk studies was outlined.

The Ancient East Section considered socio-economic, philological, cultural, and archaeological topics related to the Caucasus (Urartu), Central Asia, Egypt, Sumer, and Babylonia during the fourth and late first millennia BC. Of particular interest and fruitful discussion was caused by the cultural problems of Schumer, in particular the report of V. A. Yakobson " Some-

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theoretical problems of studying the history of culture".

As the conference has shown, the number of young Orientalists - postgraduates and undergraduates-has been growing among its participants in recent years. The geography of conference participants is also expanding, which indicates the steady authority and popularity of this forum.

T. E. ERMAKOVA, N. A. SAMOILOV

From the editorial office. Despite the fact that the information below is somewhat "late", we are confident that it will be useful for our readers interested in the problems of Central Asia, taking into account the scientific significance and relevance of the information contained in it./Inner Asia. At the same time, we cannot but complain about the continuing irregularity and instability of relations between the scientific centers of the capital and the periphery of the country.

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BARNAUL

On October 20, 2000, Barnaul State Pedagogical University (BSPU) hosted the Third Oriental Studies Readings in memory of S. G. Livshits. They were organized by the educational and research laboratory (Center for Regional Studies) "Russia and the East" of BSPU. The readings were a regional scientific and practical conference, and for the first time their scope was expanded by attracting, in addition to historians, political scientists and linguists, specialists from other related and more remote areas of social studies-cultural scientists, teachers, etc. The program of readings included, along with holding meetings of the traditional historical section, a block of reports united in the section "Culture, Education and social development".

The history section presented the latest research chronologically covering the events and processes of the XVI-XX centuries, as well as materials focused thematically and geographically on the problems of Central Asia./Inner Asia (Siberia and adjacent territories / states-Qing Empire, Xinjiang). O. V. Voronin (Altai State University) analyzed the relationship between the Oirats and Hotogoits at the end of the XVI-XVII centuries. N. S. Modorov (Gorno-Altaisk State University) examined the influence of the geopolitical factor on the historical fate of the Altai population.

Materials about migration processes within Asian Russia and neighboring states formed a special storyline of the readings. The subject of research by I. V. Vishnyakova (Altai State University) was the exodus of the Dzungarian Oirats to Siberia and the reaction of the Russian authorities (1755-1757). I. V. Anisimova (Altai State University) highlighted the issue of regulating the migration of Kazakhs to the lands of the Altai Mountain district in the 1840s. A. Y. Bykov (Altai State University) analyzed the problem of transferring nomadic Kazakhs to settlement within Russia and the specifics of its solution by the Russian side in the 1830s-1850s. Forced migrations of Kazakhs to the Qing Empire in the second half of the XIX-early XX centuries-the topic of the report by V. G. Datsyshen (Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University). un-t).

V. A. Moiseev (Altai State University) has shown some of the reasons and consequences of Russia's policy of non-interference in the course of the uprisings in Xinjiang in 1864-1866 on the basis of extensive documentary material.

Three reports were devoted to historical and economic issues. T. K. Shcheglova (BSPU) based on the materials of the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions analyzed the ethno-social factors of the formation of a single fair network in Western Siberia and Steppe Kazakhstan in the second half of the XIX century. Restoration of trade relations between Soviet Russia and the Chinese province of Xinjiang in 1918-1922. O. A. Omelchenko (Altai State University) touched upon a rare topic for Russian sinology-the history of the so-called industrial and construction corps and its role in the economic life of Xinjiang during the "settlement"period(1961-1965).

The Afghan theme was presented by the report of B. C. Boyko (BSPU). Using the example of the 1925 uprising in Shugnan (a mountainous border region between Afghanistan and then Soviet Tajikistan), he considered the prerequisites for the crisis of the Amanullah Khan regime in Afghanistan.

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The role of the Soviet factor in the development of the internal political situation in Xinjiang in 1947 is the subject of a report by V. A. Barmin (BSPU).

Extremely diverse issues related to the East in one way or another were discussed at the section "Culture, Education and social development". S. V. Shoibonova (East Siberian Academy of Culture and Arts) shared her experience of teaching a monologue in Buryat language classes at a non-philological university. V. V. Denisova (Buryat State University) focused on the problems of teaching phonetics in Mongolian and Chinese.

Extremely interesting observations of an ethno-cultural nature and methodological findings were shared by E. P. Shishkina (BSPU) in her report on the organization of an intensive Russian language course for foreign (Chinese) citizens. Developing this topic, E. L. Shklyaeva (BSPU) drew the attention of the participants of the readings to the peculiarities of studying cases at the initial stage of teaching Chinese students the Russian language.

G. I. Kurnykina (Altai State University) spoke about her methodological project-a new training course "Monuments of Oriental Literature: Cultural tradition and universalism". The use of spiritual traditions of the East in the process of teaching humanities is the topic of S. V. Khomuttsov's speech (BSPU).

Stories related to Gorny Altai were covered by representatives of this region (both from Gorno-Altaisk State University): N. S. Modorov - about interethnic problems in Gorny Altai, O. A. Goncharova - about traditional medicine of the peoples of Central Asia in the past and present.

The Oriental studies readings ended with a source study session, where B. S. Boyko and V. A. Barmin presented new documentary findings from the Russian Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the report of the International Agrarian Institute "On the Assessment of the Civil War in Afghanistan" (1929) and the resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) No. 5 of April 15, 1934."About Xinjiang", respectively.

The presented reports and presentations, as well as a documentary appendix, were published in the collection "Third Oriental Studies Readings in Memory of S. G. Livshits". Barnaul, 2000. It should be noted that the lack of financial (grant, etc.) support did not allow the organizers to make a significant step forward in holding such events. Interest in them from colleagues even within Siberia remains very low-key. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that the problems and level of reports presented, as well as the demand for published materials in foreign academic circles of a related profile, indicate the formation of a new scientific direction in Altai - Central Asian studies, although the staff and profile of most local specialists allow us to develop primarily problems of international relations in this region, and only for a to approach the standards of multidimensional and interdisciplinary Oriental research.

B. C. BOYKO

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PESHAWAR

On November 8-9, 2000, an international seminar "Creating a Climate of Trust between Pakistan, Central Asia and Russia" was held in Pakistan, organized by the Center for Regional Studies (Russia and Central Asia) of the University of Peshawar and the Hans Seidel Foundation (Germany).

By organizing a relatively small international seminar in terms of format (program), the initiators of this action pursued a certain practical goal: to highlight the positions of some key countries of the Central Asian region and other interested parties more clearly and to announce (and to some extent - and get international support) about their own projects, the main one of which is the construction of a gas and oil pipeline from the Central Asian republics Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan and further to South and East Asia. As the main organizer of the seminar, head of the Center Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan noted, the XVII century was the century of coal, XX-oil, and XXI will be the century of gas, the era of "gas pipeline diplomacy"is coming.

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Russian scientists played a significant role in the seminar. An employee of the Russian Embassy in Islamabad, A. Rudnitsky, chaired the meeting on the first day of the forum. Zav. In his speech, Vladimir Belokrenitsky, Head of the Department of Near and Middle East Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, considered a wide range of international issues related to Pakistan to one degree or another, including the Afghan conflict and Russian-Pakistani relations. He answered numerous questions from participants and guests of the seminar, highlighting many nuances of Russian policy in Central and South Asia. V. Ya. Belokrenitsky chaired the morning session of the final day of the seminar. B. S. Boyko (Barnaul State University) ped. un-t) in his report on Russia's Afghan policy and its impact on the region stated his point of view on some aspects of Russian-Afghan relations and the contradictions of the Russian position on Afghanistan (in some episodes - closed from public opinion, or too straightforward, contrasting with the line of its closest neighbors-Kazakhstan, etc.). in particular, that the Taliban is a military and political force, sometimes blind in its domestic policy and foreign relations. Being primarily a social phenomenon, rather than a religious one, as is commonly believed, the Taliban are the product of many factors, including objective ones-the marginalization of the Afghan population, economic devastation, and the loss of traditional values. In conclusion, he stressed the growing importance of the Chinese factor in Asia.

British military expert J. Sherr, a fellow of the Sandhurst Military Academy and Oxford University, gave an overview of Russian policy in Asia, taking into account the influence of European and Caucasian factors.

K. N. Burkhanov, President of the newly established Institute of Russia and China in the Republic of Kazakhstan, offered to create an Association for the struggle for Peace in Central Asia, but his initiative did not have an immediate response.

Turkmenistan was represented at the seminar by the Ambassador of this state to Pakistan S. Berdiniyazov, who made a report on traditional Turkmen neutrality (S. Berdiniyazov worked in Pakistan for almost 20 years) and the head of the Asia-Pacific Department of the Turkmen Foreign Ministry B. Klychmammedov. Unfortunately, the Uzbek side did not respond to the invitation to attend the seminar.

A special highlight of the international seminar was the participation of the Chinese delegation-two employees representing the Xinjiang Association for the Development of International Cooperation. Gao Rongzhu, Deputy Secretary General of the association and its research associate, made a report on "Analysis of the Xinjiang issue: Historical Background and current Situation" in Chinese, focusing on the measures taken by the Chinese authorities to ensure the progressive development of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, mainly inhabited by national minorities professing Islam. At the same time, he pointed out the danger of Islamic extremism, including coming from the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan. Such an open statement of the Chinese analyst on the Afghan problem was immediately used by Pakistani journalists: in the headlines of their reviews of the second day of the seminar, they made the assessments of the Chinese participant with the appropriate emphasis (for example, "Afghanistan is the center of Islamic terrorism"). The response of the Taliban administration was immediate: a few days later, a delegation of staff from the Beijing Institute of International Relations was invited to visit Kabul and Kandahar to learn about the situation on the spot.

Financial support for the seminar "Creating a Climate of Trust between Pakistan, Russia and Central Asia" was provided by the Hans Seidel Foundation (Germany), which has been a sponsor of many projects of the Center and other departments of the University of Peshawar for about 10 years. Only in 2000, the foundation funded the publication of several books - doctoral dissertations by employees of the Center for Regional Studies (Russia and Central Asia). All of them are devoted to the problems of the Pashtun struggle for independence, and topping this list is the excellent publication of the dissertation of the director of the Center, Azmat Hayat Khan - "The Durand Line and its geostrategic significance".

The participation of German guests in the seminar was logical: Andreas Rick (Eastern Institute, Hamburg), an experienced expert on Pakistan and neighboring regions, S. Blaschke (Director of the Institute for Comparative Studies)-

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S. Blaschke is a well - known expert on refugee issues, but in the context of the seminar's problems, the topic of refugees only raised additional and very painful questions, especially since many of the participants were refugees: Afghan intellectuals (Director of the Afghan Scientific Center R. Amin), politicians (former head of the Department of Social Research, Berlin). Minister of Foreign Affairs of Arsallah) and others.

In the light of recent events, not only the seminar is of interest, but also the large-scale actions that accompanied it (in fact, a whole campaign) in support of the ideas of reviving and uniting the Pashtun nation. In the first half of November 2000, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan (whose administrative center is Peshawar), mainly inhabited by Pashtun tribes (Afridi, Momand, Khattaki, etc.), experienced a surge in the activity of Pashtun political parties and public organizations. In their assessments of the Afghan situation, the Pashtun leaders assumed that the so-called Big Game continues in Asia, but its main participants have changed. In their opinion, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia are particularly destructive in Afghan affairs. Thus, Abdur-Rahim Mandukhel (Pashtunkhwa Melly Awami Party) said that the military leadership of Pakistan not only deprived its own people of their rights, but also ruined Afghanistan, seeking to achieve "strategic depth" of its positions in the confrontation with India. The territorial integrity and sovereignty of Afghanistan is one of the main principles of the party's program.

At the same time, in early November, a three-day international conference of Pashtuns was held in Peshawar (the first such event was held 13 years ago). Participants expressed concern that if Pashtuns fail to organize themselves and realize their capabilities, they may lose their identity and economic base. Numerous speakers emphasized the uniqueness of the Pashtun nation and its historical roots. According to them, the traditional values of the Pashtuns, who have a three-thousand-year history, are stronger than their Islamic faith, which they adopted only about a thousand years ago.

The next major action in this direction was the two-day National Jirga (Assembly) of Pashtuns, also held in Peshawar. The jirga was chaired by the leader of the Pashtunkhwa Qaumi Party, Muhammad Afzal Khan, and was attended by numerous parties, groups and movements representing a wide range of national and political forces in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. However, the Afghan side was represented only by expatriates based in Peshawar, and a delegation of 30 people from Afghanistan itself was detained at the border. Pakistan's religious fundamentalist parties, such as Jamaat Ulema Islami and Jamaat Islami, did not respond to the invitation to participate in the jirga.

Among the issues discussed at the jirga was, in particular, the issue of Pashtun unity. In this regard, the validity of the existence of the Durand Line as the state border between Afghanistan and Pakistan was questioned. It was suggested that the Pashto language in Pakistan should be given the status of a national language. Afrasiab Khattak, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, noted that without recognition of the Pashtuns as a nation, it is impossible to restore peace in the region. The Pashtun nation is a bridge between South and Central Asia, A. Khattak emphasized.

One of the main slogans of the jirga was: "Peshawar and Quetta are my home, Kabul and Kandahar are my brothers, and anyone who builds barriers between upper and lower Pashtunkhwa is the personification of dark forces." Another slogan was equally eloquent: "Khyber is only a passageway, the Afghans in Peshawar and Kabul are one."

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