Soldiers of the Bureviy Brigade on 1 November 2023 taking their lunch break during training at a boot camp near Kyiv before starting front line service.

Old World Geostrategy — Part I

The following is Part I of a three-part analysis that sets out to illustrate the three fault lines that are about to redraw the geostrategic map of the Old World.

US President Donald J. Trump visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on 22 May 2017.

Trump Unfailingly Delivered for Jewish, Pro-Israel Community

‘On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump made many promises to the Jewish and pro-Israel community. Promises that many politicians have made to us for decades but never had the guts to follow through on; but not Trump, he followed through. He made promises and he kept them.’

President Novák Pays ‘Solidarity Visit’ to Israel

Katalin Novák met with her Israeli counterpart, President Isaac Herzog, to show her moral support to the recently attacked Israel, as well as for the Hungarian community living in Israel. She also called for the immediate release of hostages, some of whom are of Hungarian ancestry, taken by the Islamist terror group Hamas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) with former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Moscow in 2007.

Israel Learns the Hard Way Not to Trust Russia

Moscow has failed to condemn the 7 October Hamas attack as terrorism, and Putin has likened the Gaza blockade by Israel to the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany, effectively poisoning the previously amicable Russia–Israel relations.

A solidarity march on 5 November 1956 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The banner reads ‘Help Hungary’.

A Fatal Case of Empathy — Hungary and the UN, 1956–1963

When the Soviet intervention against the Hungarian Revolution was placed on the agenda of the UN Security Council, the Soviets immediately vetoed it: their argument was that it was no more than a ‘reactionary uprising’ supported by the US. The French, meanwhile, were of the view that not only the UN Charter had been contravened in Hungary, but also the Paris Peace Treaties, and even the Warsaw Pact that served the legal foundation for the invasion. On the other hand, the United Kingdom questioned whether the use of Soviet military forces stationed in Hungary under a valid treaty and at the behest of the Hungarian government could even be called an intervention at all.