Seminar to focus on democracy in Asia, Europe

Seminar to focus on democracy in Asia, Europe

Veeramalla Anjaiah, Jakarta

Around 30 distinguished academics from Asia and Europe will
gather this week in Seoul, South Korea, to discuss the concept of
democracy in both continents and the possibility of preparing
common theoretical ground toward a universal definition, a
Singapore-based international foundation said.

"The scholars will provide an in-depth discussion on the usage
of the concept of democracy and an explanation of its realities
in their countries during an academic conference. They will also
discuss general and theoretical issues related to the conceptions
of democracy in Asia and Europe," Asia-Europe Foundation director
for public affairs Albrecht Rothacher told the The Jakarta Post
recently.

The main aim of the two-day conference, titled Democracy in
Asia, Europe and the World: Toward a Universal Definition? is to
encourage Asian and European political scientists to analyze the
theory and reality of democracy from a comparative perspective
and powwow the possibility of finding a common theoretical
ground, Rathacher said.

Prominent political scientists like Tatu Vanhanen from the
University of Helsinki (Finland), Takashi Inoguchi from the
University of Tokyo (Japan), Ferdinand Mueller-Rommel from the
University of Lueneburg (Germany), Olivia Caoili from the
University of the Philippines and Pratikno, the vice dean for
academic affairs of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, will be
attending the conference.

South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ki Moon-ban will
deliver the keynote speech at the conference, which will be
jointly organized by the ASEF and the KAIS.

ASEF is an organization -- created by the Asia Europe Meeting
(ASEM) heads of state in 1997 -- that works for intellectual,
cultural, and people-to-people exchange among ASEM member
countries in Asia and Europe with an aim to contribute to policy
debate and strategic thinking on themes of current and future
interregional importance between the two continents.

KAIS is an academic association of South Korean researchers in
the field of international studies. It was founded in 1956 and
publishes the Korean Journal of International Studies in Korean
and English.