THE EUROPEAN SCIENCE FOUNDATION SUPPORTS ASIAN STUDIES IN EUROPE

In this article Dr M. Sparreboom, who is the officer responsible for the
European Science Foundation's (ESF) work in the Humanities, reports on a
recent initiative by the ESF to support and strengthen Asian Studies in
Europe. The ESF is based in Strasbourg. This article is a slightly abridged
version of the address which he delivered on the occasion of the first IIAS
lecture at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam.
The first IIAS lecture was delivered by Professor Denys Lombard.

By Max Sparreboom

Before I explain what the ESF attempts to do for Asian Studies, let me briefly
introduce you to this organization. The ESF is a non-governmental
organization, owned, as it were, by its Member Organizations. These Member
Organizations are research councils, academies, and institutions devoted to
basic research in 20 European countries. The scientific work sponsored by the
ESF includes fundamental research in all fields of science, including the
Social Sciences and Humanities. The essential criterion for the selection of
activities in the ESF is the expected added value that co-operation and
co-ordination across national frontiers may bring. The organization is  funded
entirely by contributions from its Member Organizations, such as NWO and the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Art and Sciences (KNAW), the CNRS in France, and
the DFG in Germany, to mention but a few. Although the organization is small
in size, with an annual budget of about 65 million French Francs, it
contributes substantially to specific areas of research, not least as a result
of its flexible and unbureaucratic modes of operation.
The ESF's main strength is its experience in developing cost-effective means
of scientific management and its 'connecting-power' thanks to the direct links
with researchers and research councils. For many fields of science there are
other European scientific agencies that play important roles, for instance,
the scientific directorates of the Commission of the European Communities are
important. The ESF carries out a number of joint activities with the
Commission. For international work in the Humanities, however, the ESF is one
of the very few, if not the only, organization that sponsors programmes,
networks, and conferences on a European scale. Although the ESF is not a rich
research-funding agency, it can   --  through the prestige and legitimacy that
the ESF stamp-of-approval conveys  --   open doors at high levels of
policy-making. Clearly scholars in the Humanities do not always recognize this
possibility for promoting their interests, but in a changing European
landscape, the pressure to synergize efforts and to co-operate will be felt
in the Humanities, as it is in the other disciplinary areas.
The ESF can claim some experience in the operation of oriental research
projects. In the past, the ESF has operated a programme on Chinese Studies,
it has organized work on Iran Studies, at present it operates a network on
Colonial History and a network on the Semantics of Classical Hebrew. The ESF
is currently developing a programme on Islam around the Mediterranean and it
has recently established a Sub-Committee for Advanced Asian Studies. It is
about this latter initiative that I should like to say a few words here,
especially as the IIAS, as the future secretariat of the ESF Asian Committee,
will play an important role in this particular European forum.

FRAGMENTATION OF ASIAN STUDIES IN EUROPE
It is unnecessary to repeat what has been said earlier with so much
conviction, for instance in the lectures delivered at the opening of the IIAS 
 --  now published in the supplement to the IIAS-Newsletter 2. Asian Studies
in Europe have been losing ground since the Second World War. Looking at
intellectual achievements, the frontiers of research in many fields have been
taken over by North American and lately also by Australian universities. These
have co-ordinated the efforts of different universities, created
inter-university facilities, and established large networks integrating the
scholarly communities. They have also created closer collaboration between
academics and policy-makers. The situation in Europe is characterized by a
strong fragmentation of the academic milieus. There are difficulties in
funding at a national or university level. Career prospects are problematic,
and there is an uneven distribution of expertise as well as a lack of
co-ordination structures. In addition, the scholarly knowledge on Asia is
under-utilized in policy-making and international co-operation in general. An
Asian caricature of Asian Studies in a global perspective views European
Academia as a museum, the US as the main supply of resources, and the Far East
as the place where everything will happen and a new world will be shaped.

THE ESF ASIAN COMMITTEE
It is clearly in the interest of Europe and of European scholarship in
particular that Europe reasserts its role in Asian Studies and reconsiders how
it can make best use of its expertise and resources. It is in the meantime
widely recognized   --   also in the ESF   --   that stimulating Asian Studies
should take place concurrently at the national and international levels and
that this requires a centrally organized co-ordinating effort in order to
increase impact and visibility. 
The first result of this co-ordinating effort is a European Committee for
Advanced Asian Studies, a committee that was established in March this year
under the aegis of the ESF. This committee consists of some 20 carefully
chosen scholars from different European countries, who cover a wide
disciplinary and geographical area. Typically these scholars are
"institutionally well-connected" and can be expected to carry the
responsibility for their own field but also be sufficiently broad-minded to
see the common interest that such a committee should serve.

TASKS OF THE ESF ASIAN COMMITTEE
What will this committee do, apart from working towards general goals such as
promoting co-operation and increasing visibility? Basically the committee has
set itself three main tasks: firstly, to develop a post-doc fellowship
programme, aimed at researchers who have an established relationship with one
of the European research institutions and who are willing to locate their work
in a country other than their own. We expect that the national governments 
--  not the ESF Member Organizations  --  will provide the main funding for
this fellowship scheme, possibly with support from the European Commission.
Secondly, the Committee wants to organize scientific meetings such as
workshops or seminars on well-defined thematic topics and seek co-operation
in these events with Asian counterparts. Thirdly, another important task of
the Committee will be to strengthen existing professional associations which
operate on a more specific regional basis. These international networks of
scholars are at different stages of development and should play an important
role in the communication among European scholars. The Committee wishes to
support them in this role; an initial meeting with the secretaries of these
associations has recently taken place. Through these activities, some of which
are more ambitious than others, the committee hopes to stimulate Asian Studies
at a European level. It should be clearly understood that the Committee is not
attempting to create a new centre of gravity in Asian Studies and that it does
not wish to create another institution. The idea is to reinforce co-operation
between renowned institutions in the field of Asian Studies in Europe.

ACTIVITIES 
It is not easy, within a committee where so many diverse interests are
represented, to develop a common policy or a strategy. The interests of
classical indologists do not easily coincide with those of political
economists working on China or Japan, but the Committee does not want to
exclude any discipline from consideration. In its selection of themes, the
Committee will use the following criteria as guiding principles, alongside the
scientific high quality which, of course, stands first.
*a multidisciplinary approach, maximizing collaboration between the Humanities
and Social Sciences;
*a cross-regional approach, favouring comparative study;
central issue in all topics should be the 'longue dur‚e';
*the discourse Asia-Europe should be central, and where possible projects
should be joint-ventured with scholars and institutions in Asia;
*a practical consideration will be the appeal certain topics may have to
policy-makers.

To state the creation of more jobs and career opportunities in Asian Studies
as the main general goal would be simplistic. These possibilities will only
grow in a climate where there is a greater awareness of the importance of Asia
for Europe in a very broad sense across different strata in society. A
thorough methodological or linguistic training in research is essential, but
equally students should be taught the importance of co-operative work and of
responding to the demands of  society. The knowledge needed today  --  to
speak in practical terms  --  may require some creative thinking on the part
of traditional or classical philologists, who may have to shift the focus of
their work or change the presentation of their work slightly, in a way that
makes it easier for a wider community to see its importance.

A EUROPEAN-WIDE IMPETUS
Having some knowledge of Asian Studies from the inside out, I must say it is
useful to look at this broad field from the perspective of science management
at a European or global level. On the one hand, one can see the intellectual
and practical limitations of such highly specialized fields as there are in
Asian Studies, but, on the other hand, this perspective reveals the importance
and significance of Asian Studies as being much greater than many of its
practitioners have thus far claimed. If the Committee can   --  through the
avenues I have indicated above  --  contribute to a wider awareness of the
importance of Asia and Asian Studies and to a new European-wide impetus in
this field, I will consider the ESF initiative to be successful and worth the
effort. The Committee is starting its work under the dynamic guidance of Th.
Svensson (NIAS) as chairman, D. Lombard (EFEO) as vice-chairman, and W.A.L.
Stokhof (IIAS) as secretary, a composition of forces which, in my view,
inspires confidence that a great part of the tasks the Committee set itself
can in fact be realized.