Hungary’s Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century

Throughout the first half of the 20^th century, Hungary’s national borders continually shifted as a result of various treaties, wars, and geopolitical alignments. There are now significant Hungarian-speaking communities in Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, and most notably Romania, its biggest neighbor to the east. This lecture aims to introduce the place and role of Hungarian foreign policy and diplomatic relations on the tumultuous stage of European politics and conflicts. It will shed light on the reasons for why the country’s foreign policy remained one of limited possibilities but strong determinations, particularly in relation to its immediate neighbors and within the European Union at large.

Árpád Hornjak is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pecs and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. He also holds a teaching appointment at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia. His research interests focus on different facets of the 19^th and the 20^th century Balkan history, particularly the Hungarian-Yugoslav diplomatic relations. He is the author of Hungarian-Yugoslav Relations,1918–1927 (Columbia UP, 2013).

This talk is made possible by a University Studies Grant from the International Visegrad Fund.