Overcoming Controversies in East Asia

TOMASZ KAMIŃSKI, Ph.D. in humanities, assistant professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz. His research activities are concentrated mainly on various aspects of the EU–China relations, the Sovereign Wealth Funds and regional/local authorities who develop paradiplomatical relations with foreign partners. He is also an active blogger and regular contributor to the magazine Liberté!, leading Polish political quarterly. His publications can be find at academia.edu or researchgate.net.

DMITRY V. KUZNETSOV, Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor, Department of Universal History, Philosophy and Culture Studies, Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University. Research interests: History of International Relations. Foreign Policy and Public Opinion Interaction. Public Opinion and the International Problems. Professional memberships: The Russian Association of Political Sciences (2009), Russian International Studies Association (2016). Dmitry V. Kuznetsov is the author and co-author of books: China in the Mirror of Public Opinion. Blagoveshchensk: BSPU. (2013); Contemporary China: Social and Economic Development, National Policy, Ethnopsychology. Moscow: URSS. (2011); Contemporary China in the System of International Relations. Moscow: URSS. (2012); Traditional China on the Road to Modernization. Moscow: URSS. (2013); Contemporary China and its Environment. Moscow: URSS. (2014); Modern China in the Conditions of Transformation. Moscow: URSS. (2015); Contemporary China: Pages of History. Moscow: URSS. (2016); China and World War Two. Moscow: URSS. (2017). In 2015–2016 at the initiative of Dmitry V. Kuznetsov were implemented projects to study the public opinion: Russia, the United States and China in the Modern World: Mutual Representations of Russian, American and Chinese Youth and Russia and Poland Through the Eyes of Young People: Perceptions of Each Other, Ideas About Politics, Culture and Religion.

AGNIESZKA BATKO is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of Jagiellonian University. She graduated from Jagiellonian University and received her MA in International Relations in 2015. She also studied at Griffith University (Australia) and The University of Hull (United Kingdom). In her research, she is focusing on the Japan– South Korea reconciliation process from the perspective of non-governmental organisations in both states.

KAROL ŻAKOWSKI, PhD (2010) and habilitation (2016) in political science, is Associate Professor at the Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz. He was a visiting scholar at the Kwansei Gakuin University (2008–2009), Keio University (2012–2013, Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship), and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo (2016). His research focuses on the evolution of the Japanese political system and foreign policy. He is author of Decision-Making Reform in Japan: The DPJ’s Failed Attempt at a Politician-Led Government (Routledge, 2015), as well as other books, journal articles, and book chapters.

KAHRAMAN SÜVARI is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at Yildiz Technical University, Turkey. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Yildiz Technical University and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. He serves as a Research Assistant at Yildiz Technical University since 2013. His research interests include proliferation and non-proliferation issues, North Korean nuclear politics and security studies.

PÉTER KLEMENSITS, Ph.D., M.S.C. is a Senior Analyst at the Pallas Athene Geopolitical Foundation, Central Bank of Hungary, in Budapest. From 2015 he is a Temporary Lecturer at the Department of International Studies, Institute of International Studies and Political Science, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest. He works also as a Part-Time Researcher for the Modern East Asia Research Group, Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Péter has earned his M.S.C. in History and his Ph.D in Military Science. His research interests include the modern history and security policy of Southeast Asia, specializing on the Philippines.

DOROTA ROSZKOWSKA, Ph.D. in economics, is a research fellow at the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Bialystok. She specializes in innovation economics, international economics, Chinese economy. Her Ph.D. thesis, titled: “International technology transfer and national innovation performance on the example of the People’s Republic of China”, received very good reviews. She is an author of numerous publications, mainly on Chinese economy and technology transfer. She also has an experience as a business consultant.

EMILIA ELŻBIETA MATLASZEK is a candidate of PhD in Economics; she has master in Economics from the University of Białystok. Since 2012 she lives in China and works in Professio Services Limited as a business consultant, doing diverse market research, establishing and coordinating businesses between Poland and China; speaks intermediate level Chinese. She focuses her interests on controversy of innovation in China and China’s international investments.

HONGFEI GU, is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Lodz in Poland, he received a master’s degree in European Studies from the University of Macau. He serves as a trainee at the Center for Asian Affairs at the University of Lodz, and a researcher at the Central and Eastern European Center for Asian Studies in Hungary.

LUKÁŠ LAŠ, Ph.D., Mgr. is a Lecturer of Political Geography with a focus on East Asia at the Department of Human Geography and Regional Development, and an International Officer at the Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava in Czechia. He provides teaching of two courses; Japan in Political Geography of East Asia since 2016 and Limits of Development in India and China since 2011. He co-authored the article ‘Japanese Geopolitics of the Imperial Period’, Geografie, vol. 119, no. 4, pp. 364–383 in 2014 and defended the doctoral thesis “Geopolitics of Japan and Strategic Effects of Emergent Asia” in 2015. His research interests deal with cooperation between the EU and East Asia, and with political geography of Indo-Pacific Asia.

DAVID A. JONES, Ph.D., D.Jur., M.B.A. is Professor of International Law, International Management, and Foreign Policy at University of Warsaw Institute of The Americas and Europe, where also he holds appointments at the Faculty of Political Science Institute of International Relations, and at the Faculty of Management International Business Programme. He serves as Senior Graduate Lecturer at Norwich University, the Military Academy of the State of Vermont, United States where he has offered a course Intercultural Management in the International System multiple terms each year since 2006, and occasionally its capstone course, Global Corporate Diplomacy. Professor Jones is the author of a recent book, Four Eagles and a Dragon: Successes and Failures of Quixotic Encirclement in Foreign Policy, An Analysis (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc. & New Delhi: Bloomsbury Publishing India, Pvt. Ltd. 2015).

KAMER KASIM, Ph.D., is Professor of International Relations at Abant Izzet Baysal University. He is Head of Department of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. He had Ph.D. from Manchester University/UK in 2000. He was visiting scholar at Michigan State University/US in 2011 (April–July) and National Chengchi University, Institute of International Relations/Taipei in 2014 (February–May). He teaches various courses including introduction of international relations, globalization and security, Caucasus in world politics, Turkish Foreign Policy and communication in international relations. He is focused on foreign policies of the Caucasus and Central Asian republics, security in Asia-Pacific and security studies. He has publications of articles and books in English and Turkish. His recent edited book titled Turkmenistan published in 2016.

MATEUSZ SMOLAGA, Ph.D. is a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science and European Studies, University of Szczecin, where he teaches various courses in the field of international relations. Since completing his studies at the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw, his research has focused on the issue of international development, especially activities of emerging donors of development assistance, and South–South cooperation.

JOANNA WARDĘGA, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Institute of Middle and Far East. She graduated in sociology from Jagiellonian University and studied Chinese in the universities of Shanghai and Xiamen. She is a Director of Confucius Institute in Kraków since November 2010. Her research interests include society transformations, contemporary Chinese culture, Chinese national and social thought between the 19^th and the 21st century, and social and anthropological issues of tourism development in East Asia. She is the author of recent books: Chinese nationalism. Rebuilding Nation in People’s Republic of China (2014), Contemporary Chinese Society (2015).