Danube Institute honlapja

Conference on today's warfare and insecurity

10/10/2017
Past Events

Understanding hybrid threats and managing insecurity in 21st century. Conference on 18 October at the MTA in Budapest.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION:

UNDERSTANDING HYBRID THREATS AND MANAGING INSECURITY IN 21ST CENTURY

Since the annexation of Crimea, state and non-state actors increasingly speak of ‘hybrid threats’ and ‘hybrid warfare’. The aim of this discussion is to unpack to what extent the idea of hybrid warfare is new, and how it is developing. Moreover, facing multitude of threats, it is also important to ask if and how the transatlantic community as a whole is capable of ensuring security of citizens and of critical infrastructure. How can we mitigate continuous insecurity, and is the search for ‘security’ still possible?

The event is organised by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Beacon Project, the Antall József Knowledge Centre (AJTK), and the Danube Institute. It is held on the sidelines of a political roundtable bringing together national and EU-level policy-makers in order to build dialogue and resilience against potential hybrid threats during the approaching 2019 European election.

Moderated by:

Jeffrey Gedmin; Senior Fellow, Georgetown University and former President, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (United States)

Panelists:

Miriam Lexmann; Programme Director, International Republican Institute (Slovakia)

Kai-Olaf Lang; Senior Fellow, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Germany)

András Rácz; Associate Professor, Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Hungary)

Adam Lelonek; President, Centre for Propaganda and Disinformation Analysis (Poland)

EVENT DETAILS:

Location: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, MTA, Széchenyi István tér 9, Budapest

Dates and Times:

18 October 2017, Wednesday

Discussion

18:00

Reception

20:00

Policy Experts Debate Causes of 2008 Financial Crisis Policy Experts Debate Causes of 2008 Financial Crisis Governments as well as banks were to blame for the crisis which rocked the international financial system in 2008 2013-11-15 13:36:00 2013-11-15 13:36:00 1

The causes, cures and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis was the subject of a major international conference in Budapest on Friday 15th November – the first major event staged by the Danube Institute.

Among those attending the conference at the Károlyi-Csekonics Rezidencia were senior advisers to the Hungarian government, diplomats, academics, and business leaders.

Speakers included the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lamont and the former Italian foreign minister and economist Antonio Martino as well as the American economist Peter Wallison, Counsel to the President in the Reagen Administration and co-chairman of the official US inquiry into the causes of the crisis, and Péter Ákos Bod, a former Governor of the Hungarian Central Bank.

The conference, entitled: The Financial Crisis of 2008: Causes, Consequences, Cures, which received extensive media coverage, focused on the social and cultural impact of the crisis, as well as its economic consequences.

While there was a considerable divergence of opinion on the causes of the crisis there was general agreement that blame for it could not be levelled exclusively at the banks. Governments, such as that of the US which fuelled an unsustainable housing boom through affordable housing polices, also came under fire, as did the ECB for imposing an interest rate regime which produced similar results in several EU member states.

Hungary’s former Central Bank Governor Bod was broadly optimistic about the EU’s economic future and the future of the euro, while Antonio Martino, the former Italian foreign minister and a distinguished monetarist economist argued that the euro was unsustainable in its present form and that the political future of the European Union was deeply uncertain.

Please click here to download the programme of the conference.

/img/1/l1.jpg

Should Governments Spy on their Friends? Should Governments Spy on their Friends? Modern surveillance methods reveal patterns of human behaviour that can frustrate terrorist plots and save lives. 2013-11-06 13:43:00 2013-11-06 13:43:00 4

How far governments should go in using modern technology to spy on other states, even upon those which they regard as close Allies, a subject of huge contemporary interest, was the topic of Electronic Eavesdropping and Diplomacy, a lecture by Charles Crawford, a former senior British diplomat at the Danube Institute on Tuesday 5th November.

Crawford who was British Ambassador to Poland from 2003-2007 argued that technical advances in surveillance methods enabled governments to establish patterns of human behavior which were a vital tool in combatting international terrorism.

It was clear that those governments and politicians which had criticized the US government for spying on the political leaders of friendly states were themselves using such methods.

Moreover while counter measures might be devised to frustrate surveillance, it was unlikely that these would be wholly successful, or that governments would cease to use methods that were necessary to protect public safety.

/img/1/l1.jpg

Full House for Film on Soviet Nightmare Full House for Film on Soviet Nightmare Personal tragedies demonstrate the consequences of the doomed attempt to reshape human nature. 2013-10-25 13:44:00 2013-10-25 13:44:00 5

More than 100 guests attended the Puskin Mozi on 24th October for first public showing of Age of Delirium, a documentary film by David Satter which tells the story of the fall of the Soviet Union as lived and experienced by ordinary Soviet people.

After the screening the film-maker discussed the film and his experiences as a Moscow news correspondent during the final days of the Soviet Union.

The film which won the Van Gogh Grand Jury Prize at the was based on Satter’s book, Age of Delirium: the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union.

/img/1/l1.jpg

No Joking Matter No Joking Matter The once popular political jokes simply canâ€™t survive the transition from communism to capitalism. 2013-11-08 13:43:00 2013-11-08 13:43:00 3

Did the political joke die with the collapse of communism? According to the British sociologist Christie Davies, an international authority on the roots of humour of all kinds, that is precisely what happened.

In a stimulating lecture at which was full of insights into some overlooked aspects of the transition from communism to capitalism jokes are simply not as at home in conditions of freedom and competing ideologies as in authoritarian societies.

Professor Davies lecture’s was delivered at ELTE University, Budapest on 7th November.

/img/1/l1.jpg 1 4