Professor Jean-Luc Domenach is one of France's leading experts on China, and on Asia more broadly. His publications include works that have dealt successively with the internal and external politics of the People's Republic of China and with international relations in East Asia. His books include The Origins of the Great Leap Forward (1995); The Forgotten Gulag: China's Prison Camps (1992); Asian Communism: Dead or in Transition (1994); Asia Rediscovered (1997) and, most recently, Asia in Danger (1998). In addition to his academic writings, he is a regular columnist for two French dailies, La Croix and Ouest-France. He is also on the editorial and advisory boards of several scholarly journals, including the French Review of Political Science, International Politics, and Politics Abroad. Professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, beginning in 1995 he became Scientific Director of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, where he is also in charge of the Masters of Contemporary Asia Program. Jean-Luc Domenach is a knight of the National Order of Merit.

Between four and five thousand years ago, elephants were found in China as far north as the location of present-day Beijing. Today, wild elephants are confined to a few protected enclaves along the southwest border. To some degree, this retreat was due to a long-term decrease in the mean annual temperature, but the most important cause was the destruction of habitat by Chinese-style agricultural development. Mark Elvin uses the pattern of retreat of the elephants as a means of defining to a first degree of approximation the complementary pattern of the spread of forest clearance for farming in China across space and time, and to discuss the economic and other causes for the historical deforestation. Mark Elvin is Research Professor of Chinese History at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, and Emeritus Fellow of St. Anthony's College, Oxford. He is author of The Pattern of the Chinese Past (1973), Another History: Essays on China from a European Perspective (1996), and Changing Stories in the Chinese World (1997, among other works. Elvin was educated at Cambridge University and Harvard.

Through interviews with and analysis of the portfolio of French VCs in Silicon Valley, Professor Ferary is examining ties between VCs and entrepreneurs based on nationality, education and professional background. He describes how French venture capitalists use the French network in their businesses and how they try to get inside others' social networks to increase their resources and accumulate social capital. An exchange theory based on the gift exchange theory can be used for understanding VC behavior and relations. Currently a visiting scholar at Stanford's Sociology Department, Michel Ferary is an assistant professor at Essec School of Management in Paris, France. He earned a PhD in business administration from HEC (France) and worked for three years as a consultant in financial services for Andersen Consulting and Gemini Consulting. In addition to current work on French VCs in Silicon Valley, Professor Ferary's research focuses on the function of social networks in the financial risk evaluation done by bankers.

The Israeli economy is in an age of change. It is changing at a fundamental level from labor-intensive, low technology industries to cutting edge high technology products aimed for export markets. Now that Israel is a major source of innovation, technology has become a source of significant connections with Silicon Valley. Major activities between the US and Israel are growing, and the trend, particularly with Silicon Valley, is now stronger than ever. What are the major kinds of ties between Israel and Silicon Valley? And what factors are driving the economic activities in Israel? Yishai Laks holds the position of the Government of Israel's Consul for Economic Affairs for the United States Northwest region (including Northern California, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana). From his headquarters in Santa Clara, California, Mr. Laks directs all aspects of economics relationships between the region and Israel, assisting US companies in establishing investments, joint ventures, and trade relationships with Israel and Israeli companies. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Laks served as Economic Advisor to the Director General in Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade from 1994 to 1997. During his tenure, he advised the Director General on all aspects of the Ministry tasks and work. From 1992 to 1994 Mr. Laks was in charge of the trade between Israel and the East European and EFTA countries at the Foreign Trade Administration. Mr. Laks received his B.A. and M.B.A. from Tel-Aviv University, Israel emphasizing in Marketing and International Management.

Recently the "Asia-Europe Vision Group" published its report "Asia-Europe Partnership in the 21st Century," outlining a bright, prosperous and trouble-free future of inter-regional relations. Does this rhetoric match reality or is it just wishful thinking? At least for the time being, official relations between Europe and Asia remain on a historic low. Several EU-ASEAN meetings, for instance, were cancelled. The Asian Financial Crisis, changing foreign policy strategies as well as conflicting norms and values have weakened the so-called 'third link' of the post Cold-War order. Furthermore, in many Asian capitals the Kosovo war has resulted in deep distrust of European intentions in world politics. How serious are the recent turbulences in EU relations with Southeast and Northeast Asian countries? Will they hinder the implementation of far-reaching visions and goals such as the proposed Asia-Europe Free Trade Area? Dr. Joern Dosch is a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Shorenstein APARC. He is also Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Mainz, Germany. Former affiliations include UCSD, Johns Hopkins University, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS, Singapore), Singapore, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS, Jakarta). Dr. Dosch served as a member of the board of directors, German Society of Asian Studies, and participates in various international research projects on Europe-Asia relations and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. He has published two books and ca. 20 articles on ASEAN, European and US policies in Asia, democratization in Southeast Asia and International Relations theory.

Esprit, the European Strategic Program in IT, is the oldest and largest R&D program funded by the European Commission. A fundamental rule for participation in Esprit is the requirement to build networks among partner organizations from at least two European Union countries. This talk will explore formal collaboration and informal information networks in Esprit. It will also air some doubts about the value of formal collaborations of the Esprit type, and highlight how successful networks often emerge out of personal and informal networks among key individuals in Europe and beyond.

Dimitris Assimakopoulos is a Visiting Scholar in Sociology sponsored by Professor Mark Granovetter. He is Lecturer in Information Systems in the Hull University Business School and Honorary Research Fellow in the Sheffield University Management School. Dimitris studied civil engineering, architecture and planning before he received his PhD on the emergence of the Greek GIS (Geographic Information Systems) community from the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield in 1997. His broad area of research is social and organizational informatics with a particular interest in the emergence of new technological communities at both national and trans-national scales. Current research funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and the European Commission focuses on formal collaboration and informal information flows in Esprit.