Tag: diplomacy

G8 Summit 2013 – Decisions made

The annual G8 summit has wrapped up earlier this week. On Monday I posted about its expected agenda, now I’d like to briefly go through what’s been decided in Lough Erne in those two days. The EU and US came to an agreement to launch negotiations about what could be “the biggest bilateral trade deal in history” both in worth and in significance. After their main economic discussion, the G8 leaders highlighted the fight against unemployment as a priority in fostering global recovery. They agreed that after bright prospects in 2012, economic and financial difficulties remain in 2013 that require…

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We’re sorry, Armenia! Or… are we?

Ironically, Hungarian foreign minister János Martonyi just said last week that the international opinion on Hungary seems to be stagnating on a not so bad position after all the turmoil around the IMF talks, controversial media legislation, constant disputes with the EU, just to name a few issues. Obviously, something needed to be done to ruin this. To put it simply: the man committed a crime, got a reasonable punishment for it, now he should be serving his sentence. But he is not. To be able to fully understand this story, we should attempt to do it on a psychological…

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NBC Picks Up a ‘West Wing’-Style Show Set at the United Nations

NBC Picks Up a ‘West Wing’-Style Show Set at the United Nations “ It might be hopeless to send in Annan to broker a deal between a dictator who has no intention of ceasing his campaign against dissident forces and democracy-protestors-turned-rebels. But it doesn’t mean Annan and the UN were wrong to try, and the backstory of how he prepped for those negotiations, how they went down, and what it was like to watch the proposal that would have stood down the conflict fall apart, would make for a fascinating multi-part story.” I like this!

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Arany János: Civilizáció / Civilization

One last poem for today. This one relates to my addiction to international relations, quoted many times by Hungarian international law scholars when speaking about the function of international law. János Arany, famous Hungarian poet was much upset about the outcome of the Russo-Turkish war in 1878 when the Congress of Berlin met to reorganize the countries of the Balkans. Not many were satisfied with the unjust resettlement, many still consider these decisions as starting point eventually leading to World War I. Civilization is a short poem with much irony expressing the popular opinion of that time. I like to think…

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