Peace In Our Time, In Our Town?
Weekly briefings on the life of The New European Capital of Conservatism.
Budapest This Week
Tuesday at 5PM, you can watch the first of what will be a series of Hall Gardner events. Gardner is Kind Of A Big Deal in US geopolitics circles. See Comings for more. This one is at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, and the theme is Strategic Co-Operation Between Russia, India and China. 5PM. Register here.
At the MCC Scruton on Tuesday, they're breaking out the big guns. Balász Orbán will be giving the opening talk in the MCC's Leadership Conference, themed "Sailing In Storms". The day starts at 10, and is a mix of Hungarian and English language events.
What’s Based
The Peace Bash in Budapest President Donald Trump has announced he wants Budapest to host a conference between him and Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine. Here’s what you need to know: 1 — Trump's announcement has come with little detail regarding dates and exact locations. Best guesses are 'within two weeks'. But Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov will talk on the phone this week, to begin nailing down the preliminaries. 2 — On the table: Donetsk. In a phone call this week with Trump, Putin reportedly demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of the strategically vital region in eastern Ukraine as a condition for ending the war. 3 — Meanwhile, Trump is playing his old game of carrot and stick. After meeting Zelenskyy at the White House, he has offered medium-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv — if the Russians fail to work towards peace. 4 — For his part, Zelenskyy has dangled the prospect of a ceasefire: “We have to stop where we are, he is right, the president is right,” he said, after his Oval Office meeting, adding that the next step would be “to speak”. 5 — The exact origins of Budapest as host venue are obscure. On a call, Trump merely claimed: "We like Viktor Orbán". But when asked the question by a HuffPost reporter, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied: "Your mom did."
Other News
Paper of the Week
Hungarian 'Swissification': Cracking Open the New Iron Wall Between East and West
Before the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis, Switzerland did not have the reputation as a diplomatic conduit it now enjoys. Visiting Fellow Sean Nottoli argues that Hungary's openness towards China gives it a strategic advantage, embedded in the bigger strategy of ‘connectivity’.
“This ‘business first, make strong relationships with and be open to doing business with everyone’ attitude is well known in the Swiss capital Bern… Hungary has adopted some of the sentiment. Its neutrality is strictly about business.” “Unlike the previous administration, the current US leadership should… use Budapest to persuade Beijing to respect the status quo… Hungary’s relations with Russia and China can be turned around and used… in collective diplomatic efforts.”
Eyes & Ears
Comings & Goings
Coming: As previously mentioned, Hall Gardner is Kind of A Big Deal. Professor Emeritus of the American University of Paris, he's a geopol analyst with a historical eye and a polymath's mind. He has written books on US strategy post-9/11; Crimea post-2014, and America’s Pacific turn. He's also a published novelist and poet: check out his second anthology of poems, Barbecue Meltdown, or his recent novel, Year of the Horseshoe Bat—in Exile. Gardner is a guest of the HIIA, and will be here until at least the end of the month.
City Life
The newly-renovated House of Terror Museum is offering free tours for visitors on 23 October to commemorate the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The whole week is booked out with history lessons, workshops, and celebrity guides. More here.
Founded in 2012 by Bence Vági, Recirquel are a uniquely Hungarian immersive theatre company. They go big on spectacle and circus-tier production. On Tuesday, their new show, Walk My World, is staging a preview performance as part of Liszt Fest. 7PM, in the massive Milenáris Great Hall. Expect artists flying twenty metres on a Russian swing, hair hanging acts, and something called 'the Chinese pole'.
Biff! That's right - the Budapest International Film Festival is back. Saturday's gala opening is a screening of Two Prosecutors: Ukranian director Sergei Loznitsa's tale of an honest Bolshevik who falls foul of the Soviet regime. More highlights include this year's Iranian Palme d'or winner It Was Just An Accident.
If you've never seen it before, don't miss the torchlight procession on the Buda bank of the Danube, from 4PM on Lanchíd utca, past Széchenyi Bridge, up to the official commemorations at Bem Tér, which start at 5PM.
Dates For Your Diary
Budapest Peace Conference — Soon™Battle for the Soul of Europe, Brussels — 3 - 4 DecemberWiener Akademikerball, Vienna — 20 February “Valaki pengeélen táncol."— Dancing on the sword's edge