Event report

The Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) held a roundtable discussion entitled “Will Hungarian Defence forces be a determining power in Central Europe?” on 24 August 2021. The event was moderated by Tamás Péter Baranyi (deputy director for Strategy of IFAT), and the panelists were Tamás Csiki Varga (Researcher at the National University of Public Service), Péter Stepper (Research Fellow at IFAT) and Alex Etl (Researcher at the National University of Public Service). The researchers have pointed out the countries in question, in this case the Central European Defence Forces, and the stages of their development. They highlighted eight countries, which can be divided into three main groups: Visegrád Four countries, Baltic countries and Romania. Throughout the roundtable discussion, there were emerging topics such as the improvement of the armed forces, and the adaptation to the environment in terms of security. It is important to keep in mind the question of human and power sources. In the first half of 2010s the Central European security environment was affected by the economic recession, terrorism, migration crisis and the Russia – Ukraine conflict as well. However, on the second half of the decade, there is a tendency of improvement, for instance the collaboration among Poland, USA and Romania. It is important to highlight the improvement of military technology, where NATO has a crucial role. From 2015 we can observe a significant tendency of modernization, in terms of technology and the increased numbers of active soldiers. According to the panelists, in the future we can have a more detailed perspective on the strategic processes of the region. In the NATO 2030 plan the Central European region is included as well, and also, the development of the Baltic countries is remarkable. Central Europe became part of a collective defense system, however, the circumstances have changes in the recent years with challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic and regional migration. According to these facts, the next years there will be more emphasis on the ongoing military investments.