Danube Institute

✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Simon Kennedy

❝Az intézet egyedülálló szellemi, tudományos és kulturális híd Magyarország és a tágabb nyugati világ között.❞

📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.

Ma Simon Kennedy jogtudós sorait olvashatjátok, aki 2023 folyamán volt vendégkutatónk👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.

You can read below the thoughts of Simon Kennedy, legal scholar who was our visiting fellow in 2023👇

❝The Danube Institute is uniquely placed as an intellectual, scholarly, and cultural interface between Hungary and the broader Western world. I experienced this first hand as a conference speaker and then as a Visiting Fellow, and continue to enjoy my affiliation with the Institute.

The work of the Institute is high quality and high value, ranging over geopolitics, cultural criticism, philosophy, history, and political science, and is a strong testament to the quality of intellectual and scholarly life in Hungary. The work of the Danube Institute also demonstrates the value of rigorous debate and breadth of opinion, as, through my work with the Institute, I have colleagues across the world and across the political spectrum.❞

✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Michael Walsh író

❝A Danube Institute a kortárs magyar és közép-európai gondolkodás meghatározó, méltán dicsért szereplője. Reméljük, ez még sokáig így marad.❞

📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.

Ma Michael Walsh író, Liszt-kutató és zongorista sorait olvashatjátok, aki 2024-ben és 2025-ben volt vendégkutatónk👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.

You can read below the thoughts of Michael Walsh, novelist and musician, who was our visiting fellow in 2024-2025👇

❝In the fall of 2024, I returned to the Danube Institute as a fellow in order to give a series of lectures on the craft of writing fiction and to deliver a lecture on the life and music of Franz Liszt. As it happened, that lecture fell on his birthday. October 22. Rather than simply speaking, however, I asked the Institute if it were possible to get a piano so that I could illustrate at the keyboard the points I was making about Liszt's life and music. It was, in the form of a splendid Bösendorfer. This was the first time I had played in public in 40 years and was pivotal to my current return to the concert stages of the U.S. and Europe.

The following year, again under the auspices of the Danube Institute, I performed two concerts, the first at the Kertész Imre Intézet — on a Boganyi piano built in Hungary by my friend Boganyi Gergeley — and the second at the Bartók Béla Emlékház, once again featuring the music of Liszt. In addition, over the past decade I have spoken at the Danube Institute on such subjects as the central place of music in Western history and culture, the political situation in Ireland, and "What Makes Hungarian Music Hungarian?" The Danube Institute is a vital part of contemporary Hungarian and central European thought and has been deservedly celebrated as such. Long may it continue to be.❞

🛡️Milyen védelmi együttműködést alakítottak ki a Türk Államok Szervezetének (OTS) országai? Milyen jövőben bízik a térség?

🔎Kiderül Ibrahim Mammadov vendégkutatónk és Egeresi Zoltán kutatónk tanulmányából:🫵Keresd a linket a kommentek közt!
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🛡️What kind of defence cooperation have the countries of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) developed? What future does the region envision?

🔎Find out in the latest paper by our Visiting Fellow Ibrahim Mammadov and our researcher Zoltán Egeresi. 🫵Find the link in the comments!

✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Simon Cottee kriminológus

❝A Danube Institute-ban leginkább a rendíthetetlen elkötelezettséget kedveltem éppen azon eszmék – mindenekelőtt a szólásszabadság és a nézőpontok sokszínűsége – iránt, amelyeket a kortárs liberálisok mára egyre inkább nyűgnek éreznek❞

📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.

Ma Simon Cottee brit kriminológus sorait olvashatjátok, aki idén csatlakozott hozzánk senior vendégkutatóként👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.

You can read below the thoughts of Simon Cottee criminologist, who was our senior visiting fellow in 2025👇

❝I was a senior visiting fellow at the Danube Institute in 2025 and was made to feel very welcome, even though I’m not particularly ideological or even conservative. What I most liked about the DI was its quirky aversion to prestige liberalism, as well as its steadfast commitment to the very ideals – pre-eminently free speech and viewpoint diversity – that contemporary liberals now find such a drag. That this centre for European conservatism could extend an embrace to a post-ideological autist like me is a testament to its sound judgement and catholic approach to intellectual life.❞

✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Anthony O'Hear professzor

❝Tapasztalataim szerint az Intézet és munkatársai valóban elkötelezettek a J. S. Mill A szabadságról című művében megfogalmazott elv iránt, miszerint egy számunkra fontos nézet megvédésének legjobb módja, ha a lehető legerősebb ellenérveknek vetjük alá, hogy kiderüljön, kiállja-e azokat; ha pedig nem, akkor akár el is kell vetnünk saját álláspontunkat.❞

📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.

Ma Anthony O'Hear professzor, brit filozófua sorait olvashatjátok, aki 2023-2025 közt senior vendégkutatónk volt 👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.

You can read below the thoughts of Professor Anthony O'Hear OBE, British philosopher, our Senior Visiting Fellow of 2023-2025👇

❝I have made four visits to the Danube Institute as a fellow, the first in 2014 and the others in 2023-2025. During my 2014 visit to the Danube Institute, I spoke on religion and politics (arguing for a separation of the two) in Budapest and on climate policy in Pécs. This later paper was subsequently presented in Spain at the International Academy for the Philosophy of Science in 2015 and published in the journal Axiomathes. During my subsequent tenure of Danube Institute fellowships in 2023-2025, I researched on parental rights in education in Central and Eastern Europe (including Hungary). I received excellent research assistance from the Institute.

This research is currently being published by the Institute. Worth mentioning in this connection is the fact that my stance is somewhat critical of the then Hungarian government’s position on this (and of other countries too). The Institute had no problem with this. Our mutual concern was to examine how well served parental rights were in Hungary, and in the other countries being considered. Nor have I any idea whether my views on religion and politics and climate policy would or would not have found favour with the Hungarian government of the time. Once again, when working for the Institute, I was entirely free to develop my own views, and the Institute was perfectly happy that I should do so in its programmes, as contributions to important debates. I also was the main participant in a prestigious public colloquium on free speech put on by the Danube Institute in both London and Dublin in 2024, at which the Institute’s own commitment to the importance of genuine exchanges of view was made very obvious.

From my experience, within the Institute and its personnel there is a genuine commitment to the honoured principle of J.S. Mill (in On Liberty), that the best way of defending a cherished view is to submit it to the strongest possible objections, to see if it can survive them, and if not, to modify or even to abandon one’s own view. Over and above its public meetings and discussions the Institute runs impressive programmes for young post-graduates to research into socially and politically significant topics, which should do much to further the careers of those involved. I have seen some of the work here, and have been impressed with the level and commitment of the young scholars involved.

In short, from my experience with the Danube Institute, its work is highly valuable, with its serious examination of important topics, with the quality of the speakers it attracts to its meetings, with the range of views expressed at its meetings and with the opportunities it offers to younger scholars. I hope that all will be done to enable it to continue and develop further into the future.❞

🏦Az OTP-Ipoteka üzlet

🇺🇿Mi a jelentősége, hogy az OTP Csoport három éve jelen van Üzbegisztánban, és milyen hatással van ez a piacra?

Olvassátok el Farkas Dániel kutatónk elemzését, link a kommentek között ⬇
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🏦The OTP–Ipoteka Deal

🇺🇿What is the significance of OTP Group’s three-year presence in Uzbekistan, and what impact has it had on the market?

Read the analysis by our researcher Dániel Farkas. Link in the comments ⬇

✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Peter Boghossian

❝A Danube Institute következetesen olyan helyszínként működött, ahol nem vált alapértelmezett szabállyá az az intézményi tendencia, amelynek során számos nyugati közegben a bizonyítékokon alapuló érvelést előírt narratívák szorították háttérbe❞

📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.

Ma Peter Boghossian filozófus sorait olvashatjátok, aki 2025 folyamán volt senior vendégkutatónk 👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.

You can read below the thoughts of Peter Boghossian, American philosopher, our Senior Visiting Fellow of 2025👇

❝I served as visiting fellow at the Danube Institute in 2025. I conducted Spectrum Street Epistemology sessions on Islamic migration, religion, and political figures such as Trump. The Institute provided conditions in which participants stated their beliefs and then answered direct questions about the adequacy of their evidence and reasoning. In multiple sessions people revised their confidence after exposure to disconfirming considerations.

Discussions connected Anglosphere and European perspectives without requiring prior agreement on nation-state priority or cultural continuity. The Institute hosted structured exchanges that included efforts to place young Fidesz members and young socialists in the same inquiry process. Challenges ran in both directions. The arrangement permitted examination of claims about epistemic standards, migration, and national cohesion that face suppression elsewhere without automatic recourse to cancellation mechanisms or compelled speech.

No single venue reverses the wider institutional pattern in which evidence-based argument has been displaced by enforced narratives in many Western settings. The Danube Institute operated as one consistent location where that displacement was not the default rule.❞

✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Lord Andrew Roberts

❝Kevés think-tank képes arra, hogy megőrizze kulturális érzékenységét, de a Danube Institute közéjük tartozik.❞

📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.

Ma Lord Andrew Roberts történész sorait olvashatjátok, aki 2022-ben volt senior vendégkutatónk 👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.

You can read below the thoughts of Lord Andrew Roberts, historian, our Senior Visiting Fellow in 2022👇

❝I had the pleasure of spending several weeks in Budapest as a Visiting Fellow at the Danube Institute in 2022, at the invitation of John & Melissa O'Sullivan. They are giants of Anglosphere Conservatism – and are as civil, open-minded, and warm spirited as the political philosophy itself. They have imbued the Danube Institute with these rare & splendid qualities.

I particularly enjoyed the podcast we recorded on the nature and process of historical biography. There are few think tanks that manage to maintain a cultural sensibility, but the Danube Insitute is one of them. I wish them well in their work.❞