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.
‘The [Budapest Retro Interactive] museum demonstrates the triumph over communism through humour and satire. Far from making light of the oppressive regime or downplaying its existence, it derides it in displays that paint it as a farce when compared to the true freedom and prosperity Hungary has experienced since communism’s demise.’
Foreign policy is at the core of every nation’s political life. Accordingly, it was an important part of the debates during Hungary’s Reform Era between the liberal and the conservative forces.
‘One might conclude that only rogue states wage war without declaring it, yet the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the prolonged military involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq were not preceded by a declaration of war issued by the United States Congress either.’
The third annual MCC Feszt in Esztergom, Hungary is expected to have 40,000 people in attendance, more than ever before. The Day1 programme featured many well-known musical acts as well as a panel a discussion about the major shifts in the state of geopolitics, with Gladden J. Pappin, Dean Karalekas, Benjamin Freidman, and Michael Hume.
Anastasia of Kiev married Hungarian King Andrew I around 1038, before he took the throne and while he was still in exile. She was later involved in the establishment of one of the most renowned monasteries of Hungary, the Tihany Abbey, and is also featured in one of the most famous Hungarian historical paintings.
The debates between the Hungarian government and the European Commission often grab the headlines in the international media these years, with the issues of contention between Budapest and the EC usually being co-existence, sovereignty, and shared responsibility. However, there is indeed nothing new under the sun: Hungary had to grapple with such issues under the more than 300 years of Habsburg rule.
The nation celebrated at Tusványos, the Hungarian one, drapes over various states in the Carpathian Basin and consists of a plurality of ethnic and religious groups, fully including not just Christian Magyars but also Jews, Ungarndeutschen, and Roma with roots in the region. Foreign guests like me, who come from outside the Hungarian nation or family of nations, could also feel welcome, because, if devoid of chauvinism, nationhood offers fertile ground for inter-national solidarities and sympathies.
István András Kiss spent many years playing for the Kolozsvár (Cluj) team CFR; he even won the national youth league with their youth team in 1985. In this interview he speaks about what it was like to be an ethnic Hungarian football player in Communist Romania, where ‘class warfare and chauvinism could easily co-exist’.
Why did those who had the power to do so not pull in the reins? How could the civilised European populaces celebrate the war? Why did they not choose the path of peace, progress, and constructiveness? On the 109th anniversary of the start of the First World War, and in the shadow of the war of our time, these are the questions historians must answer.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
