Vitaly Naumkin

The new centre will operate as part of the Institute of Oriental and Classical Studies (IOCS) at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, and its flagship project will focus on the study of the language and oral folklore of Socotra Island. The centre is a trilateral international partnership between HSE University, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a consortium of leading universities in the UAE. Read on to find out about what South Arabian studies involves and what research HSE scholars do in this field.

The session titled “Middle East Countries and the New Financial and Economic World Order: the Region's Potential, Prospects of Interaction With the Russian Federation” was organized in the context of the project activities carried out by the School of Regional Studies aimed at developing practical proposals on this topic. The moderator of the section was Professor, Head of the Middle Eastern and North African Studies Section of the School of Regional Studies at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of HSE University, Deputy Chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats, Dr. A.G. Baklanov.

The School of Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the HSE University, within the framework of the XXIV Yasin (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, organized an honorary lecture “A World in Disorder - a View from Cairo” by Dr. Nabil Fahmy, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt (2013- 2014), Dean of the School of International Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo.

On December 21, 2022, the School of Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University held a roundtable discussion on “2022 Outcomes: Turkey, Iran, Central Asian Countries: Growing Potential of Influence”.

On December 2, 2022, School of Regional Studies Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University held the session "The Middle East in the Confrontation between the West and Russia" within the framework of the 4th International Conference “The world majority in the contemporary international realities: from fragmentation to new institutionalization”.

China and the Chinese world, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arab countries, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia and Africa are gaining new significance in Russia’s foreign policy. However, we do not know enough about the Eastern countries. It is necessary to change the priorities in education, starting from grammar school. Prospects for the development of domestic Oriental studies in the context of the new stage in the development of the system of international relations were discussed at a round table at HSE University.

November 25, 2021 marked the publishing of a corpus of Soqotri folklore texts. Translated into Classical Arabic, the texts are accompanied by a brief introduction explaining the basic principles of the Soqotri writing system, which is based on the Arabic orthography. The authors of the book are Soqotri native speakers Ahmed Isa al-Daarhi, Isa Gumaan al-Daarhi, and Maysoon Mohammed Aldarhi. It was published by Maria Bulakh and Leonid Kogan under the editorship of Prof. Vitaly Naumkin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The publication was supported by the UAE Embassy in Moscow.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global economic, social and technological transformations. Experts from HSE University and other education and research institutions from various countries discussed these transformations and other relevant trends for the future at the 3rd International Conference ‘East and West at the Stage of New Transformations: The Post-Covid Changes’.

On December 16-17, 2020, experts, diplomats, regional and oriental scholars from 36 countries and six regions of Russia met on the virtual platform of the Higher School of Economics to discuss new trends of regionalization and de-globalization in the world development. These trends were vividly manifested in Asia during the last year - the period of extraordinary upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.