Hungarian Foreign Policy: The Experience of a New Democracy

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This volume outlines developments in Hungarian foreign policy since the end of the Communist regime and the formation of the country's democratic coalition. After briefly reviewing Hungary's foreign relations between the wars, the Stalinist period, and the foreign policy principles of Prime Minister Imre Nagy during the 1956 Revolution, Kun discusses the 1990 elections that confirmed the rejection of Communist rule and the formation of a coalition government with Jozsef Antall as prime minister. Kun describes how the new government's foreign policy is orientated towards the West with the primary aim of establishing closer political and economic ties with industrial nations. Another aim is to protect Hungarian ethnic minorities in the neighbouring Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and the former Yugoslavia.

Reviews

An excellent factual account, judiciously organized and clearly presented, and accessible to the general reader as well as academic specialists.-Slavic Review
"An excellent factual account, judiciously organized and clearly presented, and accessible to the general reader as well as academic specialists."-Slavic Review

Author Bio

JOSEPH C. KUN, during his years in academic research, was associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies, the Research Institute on Communist Affairs at Columbia University, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., until his retirement in 1991. He received his diploma in Oriental studies and journalism from the University of Budapest. Arriving in the United States after the ill-fated 1956 Revolution, he received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and continued his graduate work at Harvard. Between 1962 and 1975, Kun worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich as Senior Political Analyst. In 1976, he joined the U.S. government and was stationed both in Washington and overseas until his retirement in 1991. His publications include two books and numerous articles on Chinese and East Asian politics and the Sino-Soviet conflict.