Report on the ISA Annual Convention and EUSA Biennial Conference – from a Central European Perspective

The annual Convention of International Studies Association on Global IR and Regional Worlds: A New Agenda for International Studies (18-21 February – New Orleans) and the European Union Studies Association Fourteenth Biennial Conference (5-7 March, Boston) were held in the past few weeks. The ISA annual conventions are among the most important events of scholarly research on global IR (at least in the Western hemisphere) dealing with the most important theoretical and practical issues of contemporary international relations and sharing recent research results. The EUSA concentrates on a specific region, i.e. the European Union. The EU’s internal dynamics and challenges, its role in international power relations including its ability to influence developments in its neighborhood and to cope with the challenges of a changing global economic and political framework are discussed in detail at EUSA events. CentralEuropeNow attended both conferences and was very much interested in finding out how the current issues of the Central and Eastern European region would be discussed at such major events. (Click on the picture.) 



The Madman Theory

Three weeks after the Budapest visit of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, there is a whole range of political opinions circulating in Hungarian media on the actual purpose and meaning of the meeting. The majority of such considerations focus on the question of why the talks were so important for the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Russian leader. The Madman Theory offers a credible explanation for those who are not familiar with the Eastern European realities. (Click on the cover.)