I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.

Balázs Orbán opined that the economic competition between the Western and non-Western world is becoming balanced, thus the world is returning to a state of equilibrium. He recalled that in 1990, the Western world accounted for 50 per cent of the global economic power, whereas this year it is only 30 percent, and this loss of influence is visible in several areas.

As regards so-called ‘globalization’, it is becoming evident that—due to technological and supply chains complexities—it is reaching its natural limits. We should, therefore, pay more attention to the rationality of domestic policies.

There is a slowdown in global growth. The economies of a once highly globalized world are drifting apart. The EMU economy is being hit particularly hard. The recession is coming and, according to projections, the EMU will soon enter stagflation, the worst of economic states.

As part of the new cooperation agreement between the two institutions, each year four researchers from the Heritage Foundation will visit Budapest and work with the Danube Institute as visiting researchers.

America went from being a net energy importer to a net energy exporter. Today, US energy sources are more diversified and abundant than ever before.

In preparing for the tumultuous years to come, a strong emphasis on developing and training native talent, and raising up a generation of leaders capable of serving their country well, will put Hungary in the best position for navigating this unexpected new world.

Upon the advent of the new decade, it was expected that the 2020s would be challenging even without a major economic crisis or another high-impact, low-probability event after the COVID–19 pandemic.

As long as legal harassment, inter-ethnic conflicts, economic hardships and—on top of all that—war plague the Hungarians in Ukraine, their survival can only be assured by the heroic perseverance we have seen in them countless times before.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine not only opened a new era in geopolitics but also affected the political framework for the protection of national minorities.

‘When I look at the European economy, strangled by over-regulation, over-taxation, ridiculous green agendas and the intrusive behaviour of the EU bureaucracy, it is clear that Europe cannot grow. It is doomed to stagnation,’ former Czech President Vaclav Klaus stated at the summit.