Position: Research Professor

Department: Contemporary History

Address: 1097 Budapest, 4 Tóth Kálmán Street

Room:

Phone: +36 1 224-6700/4651

Email:

Current Research Projects

I am in the finishing stages of writing up a book entitled Dealing with Dictatorship: The U.S. and Hungary in an East European Context, 1942–1989. The book is based on extensive research in U.S. and Hungarian archives, and to a lesser extent on the use of Russian archival sources. This is a case study of how an ideological dictatorship can be transformed externally without the use of military force. It will be argued that economic and cultural penetration was more successful than economic and psychological warfare. Length: approximately 450 pages.
I am also editing with Peter Ruggenthaler (Boltzmann Institute, Graz) and Ottmar Trasco (Romanian Academy, Cluj) a comparative volume on Soviet occupation policies in Austria, Hungary and Romania. This will be a publication of new documents with an extensive introductory essay. The documents were collected from Austrian, Russian, Hungarian and Romanian archives. The volume will show that traditional imperialism was an important source of Soviet conduct after the war – an aspect which is missing from traditional cold war literature.

Work

Currently: Fulbright Visiting Professor, Indiana University Bloomington/
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 2006
2010–2012: Hungarian Chair Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana University
Spring 2010: Guest Professor, ELTE University Budapest
2005–2006: Hungarian Chair Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana University
Summer 2001: Guest professor University of New Orleans/University of Innsbruck Summer Semester in Innsbruck
1999/2000 Hungarian Chair Professor Indiana University/research fellow, Institute of History, HAS since 2000
Spring 1999: Guest Professor, ELTE University Budapest
1997: Hungarian Chair Professor, Indiana University
1996: Fulbright Visiting Professor, Dartmouth College Department of History
1989–1992: Guest lecturer, University of Pécs
1989–1999: Junior Research Fellow, Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Courses taught

Currently:
Europe between Hitler and Stalin, 1933–1953; History of International Relations, 1815–1938; in spring 2013: History of International Relations, 1938–2000; Cold War History (graduate level), 1945–1991.
Previously:
History of the Cold War; Dark Decade: Hungary between Hitler and Stalin, 1938–1948; The Great Powers and Hungary, 1918–2000; Hungary 1890–1945; Hungary 1945 to the Present; Hungarian statesmen 19th and 20th century; History of Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th century; U.S. Foreign Policy after 1945; U.S. History in the 20th Century.

Education

Summer 1991: Exeter College Oxford, International Relations
1988–1989: Indiana University Bloomington In., History and Political Science.
1981–1986: ELTE University Budapest, English-History major

Degrees

2012: Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (This is the highest attainable degree in Hungary.)
1999: “Kandidátus” of historical science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1993: University doctor, ELTE University
1991: Master of Arts, Indiana University Bloomington In.

Scholarships

Guest researcher, CWIHP Woodrow Wilson Center in 1994; Guest researcher EHESS Paris in 1995; Guest researcher Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995; Guest researcher at the Norwegian Nobel Institute 1998; Guest researcher, Russian Academy in 2000; Hungarian-American Scholarship and Enterprise Fund scholarship at the Eliot School, George Washington University, April–June 2008.

Awards

2006
Gold Cross of Merit, Hungarian Republic
Bezerédj Zoltán Prize (Hungary's first privately established prize for scholars);
1995
Ránki György Prize of the Hungarian Historical Association

Selected publications

Books:
- Dealing with a dictatorship: The United States and Hungary in an East European Context, 1941–1991. Manuscript considered for publication by Indiana University Press
- Magyar–amerikai kapcsolatok, 1941–1989. Budapest. MTA Történettudományi Intézete, 2009.
- Magyarország a hidegháborúban. Budapest, Corvina, 2005.
- Hungary in the Cold War – Between the Soviet Union and the United States. New York-Budapest. CEU Press, 2004. (Reviewers included Robert Legvold (Columbia University), Mark Kramer (Harvard) and Holly Case (Cornell).
- A vasfüggöny mögött. Budapest, Ister, 2000.
- Megalkuvás és erőszak. Debrecen, KLTE, 1997.
- Az Egyesült Államok és a szovjet zóna. Budapest, MTA TTI, 1994.

Edited:
- Documents diplomatiques français sur le Bassin de Carpates, vol. V. Redactuer en Chef Magda Ádám. Budapest, Akadémia, 2010. Editor.
- Documents diplomatiques français sur le Bassin des Carpates, vol IV. Redacteur en chef Magda Ádám Budapest, Akadémia, 2002. Editor.

Journal articles/book chapters:
Secret Peace Overtures, the Holocaust and Allied Strategy vis-á-vis Germany. Journal of Cold War Studies (Harvard – MIT), Volume 14, Issue 2 Spring 2012.
Sowjetische Hegemonial und Wirtschaftpolitik in Ungarn. In Walter M. Iber-Peter Ruggenthaler eds.: Stalins Wirtschaftpolitik an der Sowjetischen Peripherie. Graz: Studienverlag 2011.
Stalinist Terror in Hungary 1945–1956. In: McDermott-Stibbe eds.: Stalinist Terror in Eastern Europe. Manchester University Press 2010.
A nemzeti külpolitika határai. Történelmi Szemle, 2010/2.
Akár német megszállás árán is. Századok Füzetek, 2009/2.
Was American Foreign Policy Really Tragic? Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 7 Issue 1 Winter 2005.
We Hungarian Communists are Realists. Cold War History (London School of Economics – Frank Cass), Volume 4, Number 2 2004.
Empire by Coercion. Cold War History, Volume 1 Issue 2 2001.
The Merchants of the Kremlin. CWIHP Working Paper, No. 28 Woodrow Wilson Center
Rollback, Liberation, Containment or Inaction? Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 1 Issue 1 Fall 1999
Az Egyesült Államok Kelet-Európa politikájának néhány kérdése. Történelmi Szemle, 35/3–4, 1993.
Az amerikai diplomácia és a szovjet politikai-gazdasági térnyerés Magyarországon. Történelmi Szemle, 35/3–4, 1993.