As previously made public by the Government Information Center, the Government of Hungary decided to reorganize and strengthen the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT). The reorganization happened in a bid to make the Institute more effective in supporting the Prime Minister’s strategic decision-making process in foreign policy, and to broaden the scope of its already established activities, namely, gathering information from the academic world and international think tanks, disseminating the principles of the Hungarian foreign policy to academic and broader audiences, and actively communicating with the public on international affairs.
The foreign policy institute returns to its pre-2014 name used before the last reorganization and will continue working under the name Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA). Its link to the government also changes, as from now on, while maintaining close cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Institute, with the legal status of a state-owned enterprise, will support the government’s work through the Political Director of the Prime Minister.
The new president of the organization is Gladden J. Pappin, an expert on political science and international relations. He has both Hungarian and American citizenships, earned his PhD from Harvard University, has been an associate professor at the University of Dallas, and for years has been a resident fellow at the Matthias Corvinus Collegium.
The present management of IFAT continues its work in the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs: Márton Schőberl as CEO, Tamás Baranyi, PhD as Director for Strategy overseeing research activities. The Institute also names a specific Research Director, Viktor Eszterhai, PhD, who until now has been a senior fellow at IFAT.
A Supervisory Board necessary for the present organizational format is to be made up of professionals with great experience: the President of the Board is going to be Ambassador János Balla, former Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, and its members include be Ambassador Enikő Győri, Member of the European Parliament, and István Szerdahelyi, PhD, diplomat, the present Ambassador of Hungary to Seoul.
See below the short bios of our management:
Gladden J. Pappin, PhD is an American political scientist with Hungarian and American citizenships. He earned his three degrees and PhD from Harvard University. In 2017 he cofounded the journal American Affairs. He is an associate professor at the University of Dallas, researching contemporary U.S. and European politics and the modern intellectual history of liberalism. Since September 2021, he has been a resident fellow at Matthias Corvinus Collegium. He is now the new President of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs.
Márton Schőberl earned his degree from Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Communication. He started working in business and state administration. From 2014 to 2018, he was Director of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade, then served as Deputy State Secretary for Cultural Diplomacy in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade during the fourth Orbán cabinet. He returned to IFAT as director in July 2022.
Tamás Baranyi, PhD earned his degree from Eötvös Loránd University in History and American Studies in 2010. From 2011 to 2015, he worked in the House of Terror Museum; from 2012 to 2015, as Head of Research. From 2015 to 2020, he was Head of Research in the Antall József Knowledge Centre. He defended his PhD in 2018 at Eötvös Loránd University. Since 2013 he has been teaching courses in Geopolitics at different universities. Since February 2020, he has been Deputy Director for Strategy in the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Viktor Eszterhai, PhD majored in History, Geography, and Behavior Analysis in Psychology at Eötvös Loránd University. He also earned his PhD from Eötvös Loránd University in 2018. In 20142015, he was senior resident fellow at Tsinghua University in Beijing with an interstate scholarship. In 2017 he was a research fellow at Fudan University for a month. From 2015 to 2021, he worked as a senior fellow at the Pallas Athéné Geopolitical Research Institute. From 2019 to 2021, he was an associate professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest. Since January 2021, he has been a senior fellow at the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Photo by Funzine, Sutus Dolli