The 6th study meeting(Summary)

Business trip plans

Sato:

*We need to prepare a budget and map out a general plan for this year, so please submit a proposed budget, such as for business trips.

<Explanation of the budget>

Beginning this year, we will gain cooperation from Mr. Yoshiyuki Yamamoto, an assistant professor of Law. Mr. Arakaki left for Harvard as a visiting professor, which means he has disappeared from our group of researchers. However, he will continuously support us as a co-researcher.

Nakanishi:

Mr. Sadakata left a message saying, “I want to go to Bosnia in order to research conflicts and civil society building in Sarajevo.” I will visit Iran and Turkey for ten days during the summer vacation.

Futamura:

I am planning to go abroad this summer for research.

Kodama:

I will travel to Hungary for nine days.

Yamamoto (Yoshi):

I will visit Canada for ten days.

Sato:

I am planning to go to Sri Lanka for about five days on June 10th to do research.

Sakurai:

I already have plans to travel abroad for about five trips, so I may not be able to go overseas for this study group.

Proceedings of the study group meeting

Sato:

The objectives and implementation plan for this year are written in the document. Similar to the previous fiscal year, we will hold study group meetings where we will have practical discussions for about two hours. After this meeting, we will have a meeting which will be open to the public. This will be held bi-monthly.

The junior study meeting was set up in the previous year and Mr. Yamamoto (Tetsu), RA is a key figure. The main members are graduate students at Nagoya University.

*

Today Mr. Otsubo will present a primarily report of a draft plan of the World Bank’s framework. Since it is a collaborative study, we need to achieve coherent research outcomes. The World Bank’s framework will help us produce results.

I think we need to have common cases or regions. The Government of Japan has entered into Sri Lanka for the purpose of peace building, and the regions are comparatively limited. If we gain JBIC’s cooperation, it will be easier to do research. The case of Sri Lanka could be a subject of research.

I suggest we decide common regions and take an approach from each professional field, such as economics and sociology. Otherwise, the result will end up with regional studies of each region.

Nakanishi:

I suggest we submit reports. If we don’t build up a series of such reports, we will not be able to complete a book.

Kodama:

On that note, I have a suggestion. I distributed a book as a document. It may be a good idea to release something like this continuously. For instance, one theme for one book, “Conflict Resolution and International NGOs” etc. This will be one chapter when it is rewritten. Then, it will be easy even for graduate students to write.

Yamamoto (Yoshi):

Other study groups have adopted this method. We are supposed to do a variety of research investigations regarding one topic and to leave the results as background papers when conducting individual research or studies. By building up such information, we will be able to make a big final report at the end.

Kodama:

That will be a certain level of actual achievement for both our study group and each individual.

Otsubo:

It’s easier to write. We will post the writings on Internet webpages.

Kodama:

It may be better to have 2 types. The first would be something like working papers. We could prepare a fine cover sheet, and would be okay to staple the rest of the standard papers together. We will hand out the papers and have a discussion based on them.

The other would be one with slightly-improved-contents that are not merely checked by a publisher. We will then revise them and finally turn one into a book.

Sato:

Do we need to think of a theme for each volume?

Kodama:

It’s difficult to start writing after we decide on a theme. Rather, it’s better to keep going with what we are writing.

Sato:

I do hope you will all write working papers which include your overseas business trips.

*

Sato:

What is the junior study group doing?

Yamamoto (Tetsu):

They are now thinking about creating a web dictionary.

Sato:

If they have themes which could be working papers, it will be okay for them to write.

Kodama:

Working papers do not require a long time to write. Regarding a meeting open to the public, we need to think about a budget plan, considering whether or not transcriptions from tape recordings or a summary are required.

Otsubo:

When posted on the website, they will be recognized as working papers for now. So, it is better to make prints only for those involved.

This also enables us to concretely show the activities of our peace building study group. However, it is preferable to write in an open manner, rather than writing only one article for each business trip.

Sato:

In the working paper form, we should decide to write at least one.

*

Sato:

The idea of news letters was suggested in the previous meeting.

Kodama:

News letters will not be equivalent to the actual achievements, so I think a simple book is better. Then, we could print about 200 copies and get them distributed. We can call them booklets. Then, we should edit them, to some extent, and complete them at a level which is in no way inferior to a work for general readers.

Nakanishi:

It’s difficult to write when the readers are unknown.

Kodama:

They are probably researchers who are correlated with peace building.

Otsubo:

Speaking of working papers, we may dare to write something like theory. In a booklet, however, a certain level of comprehensive things, such as themes or issues, should be written. I assume that a booklet will be read by the public in cases where it interests them.

Sato:

We would like to mainly think about the current research issues and lessen the burden as best we can.

*

Nakanishi:

We need to clarify our own individual themes at this point. Based on them, we should look at the future outlook.

Sato:

Well then, each of you should submit his/her theme, simple title, and a rough image. I will also make a suggestion asking you to do research based on this direction.

*

Kodama:

I would like to discuss further booklets and working papers. We need operations, including layout, and also a budget for editing and printing.

Sugimoto:

The budget is proposed by CDIC.

Meetings open to the public

Sato:

We are going to set the date for a meeting open to the public. We will invite professor Kozaki of Senshu University on June 18th.

Futamura:

The theme is “The Settlement of the Central American Conflict and the Subsequent Process of Peace Building” and the subtitle is “The Guatemalan Case.”

Sato:

I would also like to ask Mr. Mushanokoji to come.

Kodama:

He seems to be willing to come since he visits Nagoya every week and works as an adjunct instructor at the university.

Nakanishi:

I want to invite Mr. Magosaki, a professor at the National Defense Academy. He can talk about many themes such as Japan’s anti-terrorism measures.

Sato:

Mr. Jan Oberg can come too.

Kodama:

Professor Guha, who deals with the Kashmir issue, will visit Nagoya. The Kashmir issue is quite complex although it is not often discussed in this study group.

Sato:

If the schedule cannot be fixed, we will hold a special study group meeting instead.

We will invite Mr. Kawamura as an adjunct instructor in mid-September. In addition, I plan to invite Mr. Inoue sometime in November. I’ve known him since UNDP and UNTAC, and he went to Somalia and so on.

Ohira:

Not necessarily this year, but I want to invite Mr. Shinoda of Hiroshima University and Mr. Mochizuki of Kwansei Gakuin University.

Nakanishi:

Experts in Islamic terrorist organizations such as Hamas are visiting Kyoto University.

Yamamoto (Yoshi):

Speaking of peace building, there is Mr.Pablo Mateu. He works in the section which deals with how to integrate refugees into society after repatriation. He may not be able to make it as he is busy.

There is another person, Mr. Frederick Burkle. He launched human resources development for emergency humanitarian relief from the very beginning. He is a person who is like a living witness of history.

Kodama:

Speaking of NGOs and the United Nations, there is Mr. Chadwick Alger, an American researcher. He has held such positions as chairperson of ISA and secretary general of IPRA. It is very good timing because the relationships between the United Nations and NGOs has been moving on.

Other

Kodama:

The international conference of NGOs and conflict prevention will be held at the United Nations in September next year. Looking toward the conference, a meeting will be held in each region. Regarding the meeting to be held in East Asia, it became difficult to open the session in Nanjing. So it has currently been arranged to hold the meeting in Japan. The Peace Boat will also support it. As the venue changed, the future of this event remains uncertain.

*

Nakanishi:

I want to know the due date of submission for each theme.

Sato:

By May 10th.

Kodama:

How much do we need?

Sato:

Just theme and outline will be fine.