Learning from a Troubled Past, Opting for a Bright Future — Some Thoughts on a ‘Ferry Country’

‘Hungary is a literal crossroads nation between Europe and Asia due to its geography and culture. It exists on the edge of Western civilization, as can be seen in Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. In his book, “east” of the Hungarian People starts what he describes as the distinct Orthodox civilization, and nearby also lies the Islamic civilization. Even though Hungary is now a part of the West, it still has links to the East, which is most notable through language as well as cultural origins and heritage.’

Foreign military advisors visit Iran's defence industry achievements exhibition in Tehran on August 23, 2023. Iran unveiled on August 22 its latest domestically built drone that can fly at a higher altitude and for a longer duration with enhanced weapons capabilities, state media reported. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Dealing with Iran: Appeasement Is Not the Way

‘The rapport between the governments of the world and Iran cannot be limited to the financial sector; they must address Iran’s brutal crackdowns of its own population, its sponsorship of global terrorism, its setting up a parallel-state within Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, its militia forces in Iraq, which with the assistance of the Badr Organization occupy government posts imposing their sharia-based tenets, and its delivery of weapons to Russia to use against Ukraine.’

President Katalin Novák visiting the kindergarden in Tel Askouf renovated with the assistance of the Hungary Helps Programme on 9 December 2022.

Iraqi Christians Only Have a Future if the Country Will Be a Safe Place for its Diverse Minorities — A Discussion with Jeremy P. Barker

In the latest episodes of the Reflections from Budapest podcast, Director of the Middle East Action Team at the Religious Freedom Institute Jeremy P. Barker explained that their work aims to promote religious freedom rights for everyone everywhere, recognising and hoping that includes even the smallest and most persecuted religious minorities, whether that’s Christians or Yazidis in the Middle East, or Uyghurs in China and others.

The Revenge of Geography? — Theoretical Considerations for Interpreting the Russia–Ukraine War

‘Nation-states will be reduced in their functionality, becoming of secondary importance as entities, and the principle of territorial existence will slowly dissolve into a new, boundless uniformity. To use a rather un-English term, we are going to witness the deterritorialization of the world—a world deprived of the territories of its constituents, at least if we are to believe the new utopians.’

Ukrainian soldiers parading.

The Complexities in Ending the War in Ukraine

It is quite clear that the Ukrainians would have never survived this long against the Russian aggression without the financial and military assistance of the US. Yet the Biden administration has thus far offered no strategic argument on behalf of the costs and risks, let alone what is the overall end objective of the war.

US Marines escorting Yugoslav POWs in Kosovo over to Yugoslav authorities on 3 July 1999.

The Logic of New and Old Wars — Reviewing Mary Kaldor’s Book

Today we still often think of war in the Clausewitzian terms, as of the ‘continuation of politics by other means’, conducted by one state against another. However, as argued by Mary Kaldor, many armed conflicts have acquired a completely different, de-politicised nature, becoming a new social condition.

Bence Rétvári: The Key to Europe’s Security is Border Protection

Speaking at the farewell of the Hungarian police contingent heading to Serbia, Bence Rétvári reminded that Hungary is already engaged in a trilateral cooperation with Austrian police, jointly protecting the southern borders of the European Union. The success of this police collaboration is evident in the significant number of illegal migrants that have been apprehended during recent times.