ATTILA BALÁZS (Novi Sad/Újvidék, 1955) is a writer, translator and journalist, author of twelve books of prose and founder of the cultural magazine Ex Symposion. He worked as editor for the YU Radio–Television, then moved to Budapest in 1991. For a time he worked as war correspondent, then as political correspondent for the newspaper Pesti Hírlap. In 1994–2012 he was editor of the cultural programmes of the Hungarian Radio. Among many distinctions, he has received the Attila József Prize for Literature and the Book of the Year Prize in 1999.
JAMES C. BENNETT is a writer and entrepreneur. He was cofounder of two private space transportation companies and other technology ventures. He has written extensively on technology, culture and society. He is the author of The Anglosphere Challenge (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), The Third Anglosphere Century (Heritage Foundation, 2007), a former columnist for United Press International, and has contributed to The New Criterion, National Review, The National Interest, The New Atlantis, National Post (Canada) and The Daily Telegraph (London). His most recent book is America 3.0: Rebooting American Prosperity in the 21st Century – Why America’s Best Days Are Yet To Come (Encounter Books, 2013).
CHRISTIE DAVIES is a graduate of Cambridge University; MA (double first in Economics), PhD (Social and Political Science). He was for seventeen years full Professor at the University of Reading, UK, and has been a visiting scholar or lecturer in India, Poland, and the United States. His most recent books are Jokes and Targets (2011), The Strange Death of Moral Britain (2004) and The Mirth of Nations (2002). He has been a radio producer and appeared on radio and TV in many countries and has published a large number of articles in the press, in magazines and online in UK, the US, Europe and Asia, as well as a collection of humorous magical-science fiction short stories.
GEORGE GÖMÖRI (Budapest, 1934) has been living in England since November 1956. After studies in Oxford, he taught at the University of California (Berkeley), and researched at Harvard. From 1969 to 2001 he taught at the University of Cambridge. He published many books on Polish and Hungarian literature, as well as 12 books of poetry in Hungarian and two in English. He is a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cracow).
GYÖRGYGRANASZTÓI(Budapest, 1938) historian, former, Director of the Hungarian–French Atelier for the Humanities and of the doctoral school at ELTE BTK, and former Director General of the László Teleki Institute is a Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister. He is a recipient of the Charles Simonyi scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His field of expertise is the history of humanities. Besides the history of the city and the history of population growth, he published essays about the transition to democracy. He is a Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). Between 1990 and 1994, he was Ambassador for the Antall government to NATO and the European Union, as well as to the Belgian Monarchy (2007). He was elected to the French Légion d’honneur in 2009.
DAVID A. HILL was born in Walsall, UK in 1952, and after studying and working in Britain until 1977, has lived in Italy, ex-Yugoslavia, and Hungary.Hismainprofessionalwork is related to education, and he has written over 50 books in this field. He is also a poet with four published collections, and a translator of poetry. An experienced naturalist, Hill has studied and written articles and books on botany, ornithology and lepidoptery. His interest in all things Art Nouveau dates back to 1970, and he has travelled throughout Europe and beyond to see and photograph the art and architecture of the period, as well as writing articles and giving lectures about it. As a semi-professional blues musician, Hill has given concerts in many pubs and clubs around Budapest over the years.
ZSOMBOR JÉKELY (Budapest, 1970), PhD, with MA degrees in Art History (ELTE, Budapest) and Medieval Studies (CEU, Budapest). He received his PhD in Art History at Yale University in 2003, his dissertation is on the medieval frescoes at the Augustinian church of Siklós. Between 2001–2006 he worked the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, at the Sculpture Department and as one of the curators of the major international exhibition dedicated to King Sigismund. Since 2006, he has been assistant director and then head of exhibition department at the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, where he was the project manager of exhibitions in the “Renaissance Year” (2008), and the co-curator of the exhibition The Dowry of Beatrice, dedicated to Italian majolica in the court of King Matthias. He is the author of articles and books on wall-painting in medieval Hungary, including books on wall-painting in Transylvania (2008) and North-Eastern Hungary (2009). In 2010, he received aMellonResearchFellowshiptoVilla I Tatti, Florence (Harvard University). Since October 2010, he is the Director of Collection at the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest.
GÉZA JESZENSZKY (Budapest, 1941): D. Phil., historian, graduated from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. From 1976 to 2011, he taught at what is today Corvinus University of Budapest. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at UC Santa Barbara in 1984–86, and has taught the history of international relations and of Central Europe at numerous other universities in the US and Europe. He was Foreign Minister of Hungary in the first non-Communist government (1990–94), andAmbassadortotheUnitedStates of America in 1998–2002. At present, he is Hungary’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway and to the RepublicofIceland.Heistheauthor of numerous publications on history and foreign policy; his latest book in English is Post-Communist Europe and its National/Ethnic Problems (Budapest, 2009). He is an editorial adviser for Hungarian Review.
ÁRPÁD KADARKAY (Kesztölc, 1934). Though an outstanding student in the gymnasium in Esztergom, his university application in Cold War Hungary was returned as that of a “classalien,unqualified”.Hebecame a miner in the coal pits of Dorog and Csolnok, “the pits of hell”. Conscripted into the Hungarian Army, 1954–56, he deserted in November 1956 and joined the Revolution. After the Soviet invasion, he emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, in March 1957. While working the graveyard shifts at Eburne Saw Mills, Vancouver,he earned Double Honours at the University of British Columbia,1958-1963,andon a fellowship, an MA in Political Science at UC Los Angeles, 1963–65, and a PhD in Political Philosophy, UC Santa Barbara, 1965–1971. He is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound, and lives in Tacoma, Washington. He did his research on György Lukács on IREX Fellowships. His publications include Georg Lukacs: Life, Thought, and Politics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), The Lukacs Reader (Blackwell, 1995), Human Rights in American and Russian Political Thought (University PressofAmerica, 1982),and an English translation of Journey in North America, 1831, by Sándor Bölöni Farkas (Santa Barbara, 1978).
GYULA KODOLÁNYI (Budapest, 1942), Editor-in-Chief of Hungarian Review and of Magyar Szemle, is the author of eleven collections of poetry, scholarly and literary essays and poetry translations. He taught English and American Literature at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest in 1970–1989. He received research and teaching fellowships from the British Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, CIES and The German MarshallFundoftheUS.Hetaught at the University of California in Santa Barbara (1984–85) and at Emory University in Atlanta (2004–2009), andreadhispoetryinEnglishwidely in the US. In 1987, he was a founding member of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). In 1990–94, he served as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister. In 2000–2005 he was an Adviser to President Ferenc Mádl. In 2012, he received Hungary’s Middle Cross with the Star and in 2005 the President’s Medal of Honour for his public and literary achievements. With Magyar Szemle, he received a Prima Prize in 2003.
FRANK KOSZORUS, JR., practices law in Washington, DC. He has lectured at various institutions and has testified before several Congressional Committees about NATO enlargement and minority rights. In October 1997, he participated in a NATO fact-finding mission that was jointly sponsored by the Department of Defence and the Department of State. His activities include membership in the US delegation to the Paris Helsinki Conference on the Human Dimension, and in the International Human Rights Law Group. Koszorús helped organise the Committee for Danubian Research, and was a founder of the Hungarian American Coalition, on whose board heserves. He is also the president of the American Hungarian Federation of Metropolitan Washington, DC. His publications include Self-Determination in the New World Order (1992).
MICHAEL J. LOTUS writes as “Lexington Green” for the Chicago Boyzblog on history, politics and books. Heistheeditorandleadcontributor to The Clausewitz Roundtable (Ever Victorious Press, 2013). He is the 2012 winner of the Explorer’s Foundation Cobden-Bright award for his contribution to the Anglosphere. He has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and a JD from Indiana University, Bloomington. He practices law in Chicago.
JOHN LUKÁCS (Budapest, 1934) is a Hungarian-born American historian who has written more than thirty books in English. He was a professor of history at Chestnut Hill College from 1947 to 1994, and held the chair of that history department from 1947 to 1974. He has served as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Princeton University, La Salle University, and the University of Budapest. During the German occupation of Hungary in 1944-45 he evaded deportation to the death camps, and survived the siege of Budapest. The following year he fled to the United States. His latest publications include At the End of an Age (2002), Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred (2005), June 1941: Hitler and Stalin (2006), Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (2008), Last Rites (2009), The Future of History (2011).
GEORGE SCHÖPFLIN (Budapest, 1939) has been a Member of the European Parliament for Fidesz since 2004. He graduated from the UniversityofGlasgowin1962,and did his postgraduate studies at the University of Bruges. He worked at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (1963–1967) and the BBC (1967–1976). He taught at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London from then on, becoming Jean Monnet Professor of Politicstherefrom1998to2004.He is active in the Constitutional Affairs and Foreign Affairs Committees of the European Parliament. He is also the author of many articles and books, including Politics in Eastern Europe 1945–1992 (Blackwell, 1993), Nations, Identity, Power (Hurst, 2000). His latest book, The Dilemmas of Identity has already appeared in Hungarian as Az identitások dilemmája (Attraktor, 2004).
RADOSŁAW SIKORSKI (Bydgoszcz, 1963) is the Foreign Minister of Poland. After heading the students’ strike committee during the unrest in Bydgoszcz in March 1981, he was granted political asylum in Great Britain in 1982–89. After graduating from Oxford, he became a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola, and covered the Velvet Revolutions in Eastern Europe. As Deputy Minister of National Defence in 1992, he initiated Poland’s NATO accession campaign. In 1998–2001 he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Honorary Chairman of the Foundation for Assistance to Poles in the East. He was elected senator for Bydgoszcz in 2005 and served as Minister of National Defence in 2005–2007. He was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland on 16 November 2007. Sikorski is the author of several books, including Dust of the Saints, The Polish House: An Intimate History of Poland, and Strefa Zdekomunizowana [The Decommunised Zone].
ISTVÁN STUMPF (Sárospatak, 1957) is a Hungarian scholar, political scientist and politician. He graduated from Eötvös Loránd University receiving his degree in law and sociology, and a PhD in political science. He was founder and Director (1982-1998) of the Századvég School of Politics and ELTE István Bibó College. He also served as Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office between 1998 and 2002 in the first cabinet of Viktor Orbán. He has been a member of the Constitutional Court of Hungary since July 2010 and President of the Századvég School of Politics Foundation.
PETER J. WALLISON is the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy organisation in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Between 1985–1986, he was White House Counsel for President Ronald Reagan. Before that, between 1981 and 1985, he was General Counsel of the US Treasury. He was a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a group created by the US Congress to report on what caused the financial crisis of 2008. He writes frequently on financial regulatory matters, US housing policy and related matters.