About

The 21 st century is sometimes regarded „the age of Asia and the Pacific”. ­A common phrase  has it that while the Mediterranean and adjacent territories were the cradle of our civilization, similarly the Pacific and Asia are areas of the present running into the future. Namely here, as reiterated by specialists, concentrates current and expected energy dynamising the development of the world. Here arise and might emerge in the future new centres being inspiration for societies. Nowadays here bloom and possibly will furthermore bloom bold new concepts and visions. All this makes up a fascinating soil for scientific research, where the ARC efforts will be focused.

However regardless of the basic line of interest the Centre contributors will tend to comprehensively approach all relevant issues highlighting all complex and interdependent strata of analysis. It is self-evident that we now function within the conditions of rapidly globalizing economy.  Single, local problems are not separate episodes and phenomena, they must be perceived in the context of a common life on one planet.

Thus we want to stay focused upon things Asian, but on the Asia being considered as a natural part of the Eurasian supercontinent, which is increasingly practiced, and upon Asia as part of the whole planet.

This holistic and full outlook however may not be restricted to space only; we must also refer to the dimension of time. We are quite aware how much vulnerable Asia remains to what was going on there in the past, sometimes­ even in a very distant one. It is a part of the world where tradition very much inspires and constructs the future. What immediately comes to mind is a powerful tradition of the Silk Road, which forever created a crucial way of thinking (“the spirit of the Road”), proved the power of commerce and economic mechanisms as a whole. It also disclosed the power of a human being able to achieve more than theoretically possible.

Modern globalization brings on interaction or even confrontation of cultures: systems of values, customs and faiths. The size of it is overwhelming, thus very often we face new displays of it. Political and business leaders may sometimes think that such a cultural interaction sprang up nowadays as a completely new phenomenon which we must cope with, though sometimes do not know how. But applying a historic perspective we see how efficiently the original historic Silk Road mechanism was to defy similar challenges coming up in the then “global” historic reality and how it managed to accomplish unusual things.

Being a group of university colleagues, inspired namely by achievements and spirit of the historic Silk Road we wish our activities to be guided by a multicultural approach and respect for various regional, national, cultural and ethnic features, while studying the phenomena. We shall be driven by an inherent fascination towards the diversity of cultural environments of the present and the past, which compose our civilization.  It will be a force behind our network of enthusiasts deployed in different locations on the globe.

Though we come mainly from the community of economic and business schools we strive to build an multidisciplinary approach to our studies, which eventually will translate into innovative didactic methods. Researching for instance matters relating to the historic Silk Road, including recent initiatives to revive its tradition, we shall try to invite experts from many fields of academia. Besides economists and business specialists, welcome for cooperation will be people representing such branches as history, sinology, cultural anthropology and other talents. The ultimate aim will be to trespass artificial and imaginary barriers between various fields of knowledge, once erected by ourselves.

Implementing our targets we shall utilize all experience, expertise and arts, garnered in different countries and at different time. For collaboration we warmly invite friends from the academia and other circles linked to the issues related to Asia in a broader sense. We also invite our students, those who have the ambition to know more about interesting things, and who plan to be better prepared for their future professional work.

Final results literally depend on us all, so we are waiting for you.

The Institute’s Team