On July 20 Daniel C. Matuszewski, president of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), addressed a meeting of the Library of Congress Professional Association Polish Language Table.
Appointed president in 1992, Dr. Matuszewski has guided the development of field research and professional training programs in the countries of Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and China. IREX training is designed to aid these countries' transition to parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and a market system. During Dr. Matuszewski's tenure, IREX program funding has grown from $5 million a year in 1992 to more than $25 in 1995.
In his presentation, Dr. Matuszewski described current initiatives in the context of IREX accomplishments since its inception in 1968.
IREX exchanges have been beneficial to both East and West, he said. Without the intercession of IREX, Western researchers would not have gained access to key libraries, archives, expertise and other resources that ultimately would shape perceptions of the entire region beyond the Iron Curtain. From the Eastern perspective, exposure to the substance, terminologies and methodologies of Western scholarship had even more far-reaching consequences. Along with the Western concepts and practices that IREX alumni carried back to Central Europe and the Soviet Union was the realization that their closed societies would fall hopelessly behind the West in a postindustrial world based on the free flow of information.
It might be argued that perestroika and glasnost were the inevitable result of exposure to the West, Dr. Matuszewski said. IREX alumni can be found in positions of power throughout the former communist world, e.g., Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic and Economics Minister Grzegorz Koþodko of Poland.
Since the fall of communism (1989 in Central Europe and 1991 in the Soviet Union), the environment in which IREX operates has changed in fundamental ways. In the "bad old days" of the 1960s and 1970s, he said, all Western academic and cultural exchanges with the Soviet bloc had to deal with state-mandated partners, e.g., the powerful Soviet Academy of Sciences.
But today a pluralistic approach is in place, enabling qualified individuals at their own initiative to compete openly and win IREX support according to the merits of their proposals. To disseminate information about such opportunities, IREX has opened 17 offices throughout the region, is advertising on television and radio, and is developing an extensive online network.
Although the removal of rigid bureaucratic barriers has been a positive development in general, a new set of obstacles and problems has emerged. The collapse of the old system has been accompanied by varying degrees of chaos, corruption, and crime -- the "wild, wild East" phenomenon.
The communist-era elites, or omenklatura, have not left the scene, but continue to control access to research resources. While repackaging themselves as long-suffering reformists and recasting their institutes as foundations, they are profiting commercially from the contacts and knowledge their previous nomenclatura status bestowed, he said.
Another negative aspect of the transition to a market system is a brain drain from the humanities and social sciences, which is due in part to underfunding by the governments of the region. With limited budgetary resources, the ministries of education are placing a disproportionate emphasis on engineering and other high-tech fields, the speaker claimed.
In view of these problems, IREX intends to continue its programs, aiming to foster direct links between U.S. universities and counterparts in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. In an era of tight budgets, IREX will pursue its goals using an integrated approach that pools the resources of the U.S. Information Agency, the Agency for International Development, the State Department, private endowments and corporate funding. Despite immense accomplishments, the work of IREX is not finished.
