last updated in November 2022
Since the outbreak of the war on Ukraine, faculty members from all fields of study have contributed expertise on a variety of topics related to the invasion. The contributions of knowledge by CEU's diverse colleagues bring insightful perspectives to the important discussion on democracy, sovereignty and global politics.
A summary of international media appearances by CEU faculty is below. (Media links will be added as new coverage is published.) (For Hungarian coverage, visit this page.)
Professor Balazs Trencsenyi (Department of History) and CEU President and Rector Shalini Randeria describe CEU's Invisible University for Ukraine initiative to University World News.
Professor Michael Ignatieff (Department of History) contibuted an Op-Ed to The Globe and Mail, reprinted online by Persuasion, and he spoke to Radio Canada about the fragility of liberal democracies. His OpEd "What is the West's Objective in Ukraine?" published in Project Syndicate was picked up by Gazeta Wyborcza and several other outlets. His OpEd published in Newsweek was titled "Could Vladimir Putin Be Overthrown?" Professor Ignatieff was also interviewed by Newsweek on Russia committing genocide in Ukraine (see here). He gave expert commentary in interviews to Croatian TV N1 (see here and here). He was interviewed by Italian La Republica on how the destinies of Russia and Europe got once again divided, and he was the guest of the KEEN ON podcast as published by Literary Hub. Professor Ignatieff's OpEd entitled "Opinion: The West must make it clear when it does intervene: if Putin wants to put an end to the Zelenskiy government" was printed in deVolkskrant. He also spoke to Il Foglio about Ukraine in relation to the Hungarian elections, to Die Presse about the expected decade of global instability and a revolution in the financial system, and to Kapital Insights on the reasons of the war and where it might bring us.
Associate Professor Boldizsar Nagy (Department of International Relations) spoke to USA Today about the migration aspects of the war on the Ukraine. The article was republished by Yahoo News. He was also quoted in Euractiv about those Roma Ukrainian refugees with dual Hungarian citizenship who have been shuttling between Visegrad capitals as governments refuse to provide them with the same aid as to other Ukrainian refugees.
Professor Nick Sitter (Department of Public Policy) gave expert commentary to EurAktiv on the question of oil and gas imports from Russia, and he argues to focus more on regasification plants than on gas pipelines in Il Foglio. Professor Sitter was also asked to share his expertise with The Globe and Mail on Finland’s bet on new nuclear energy in building energy independence from Russia, and CEEnergy News regarding how the energy crisis will accelerate the EU Green Deal. He was quoted in EUObserver on coal embargo on Russia, and by Japanese news agency Nikkei on Europe’s energy market. He was interviewed by Swiss Sveriges Radio on the question of natural gas as a political weapon.
Associate Professor Maciej Kisilowski (Department of Economics and Business) and Assistant Professor Inna Melnykovska (Department of Political Science) were featured on the KEEN ON podcast and on Literary Hub discussing the West's moral failure in the Ukrainian Invasion.
Inna Melnykovska gave an in-depth interview to Swiss Watson about the situation in the Ukraine and the effects of the war, and spoke to The Global Anticorruption Blog in a podcast, and she was interviewed by The New Arab Voice and Inkstick. She and Researcher Volodymyr Kulikov gave their insights on the war in an interviewed with Klub Radio as well.
Maciej Kisilowski wrote an Op-Ed entitled "Ukraine's Lessons for NATO's Eastern Flank” for Project Syndicate, picked up by Gazeta Wyborcza, The Gulf Times, The Korea Times and Swedish heidi.news. Kisilowski additionally was mentioned in another Literary Hub article (reprinted in The Daily Bulletin) and his recent article on "Kaczynski representing the European Union in Kiev is a grim joke" was published in Gazeta Wyborcza. Another of his OpEd in Project Syndicate "Does the West Need Autocrats to Fight Putin?" had received wide coverage in outlets such as The Los Angeles Times, Gazeta Wyborcza, deVolkskrant, Yahoo News, The Japan Times and Der Standard. In a Los Angeles Times article about the staggering refugee burden on Poland he calls the painful contrast between the opening of homes to overwhelmingly white Christian Ukrainians, after mainly Middle Eastern migrants were left to freeze in the forests of the blockaded border with Belarus, racism. He was also quoted on the Hungarian PM’s veto threat on the EU oil embargo on Russia in Businessmayor.com. He wrote an OpEd entitled “How Western Sanctions Strengthened Putin” in Wyborcza, and one for The Wall Street Journal called "EU Signs Off on $19 Billion in Funding for Ukraine."
Professor Kisilowski co-authored the Op-Ed with Associate Professor Yusaf Akbar "Of race and war: What the crisis in Ukraine tells us about ourselves" published in Politico.
Yusaf Akbar (Department of Economics and Business) was also in conversation with Andrew Keen on KEEN ON podcast as published by the Literary Hub about why the Ukraine might be the first global war about globalization itself.
Director Marius Dragomir's (Centre for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) at the CEU Democracy Institute) OpEd entitled "Orbán's difficult balance between Putin and the EU" that was published in Euronews was picked up by great many outlets including ElEspanol, Rzeczpospolita, Dnevnik, deVolkskrant, Der Standard and almendron.com. Dragomir also gave expert commentary on the Hungarian media scene in an article to EurActive on how the Russian invasion muddles the Hungarian elections. He was interviewed by RFI Romania on Russian media and pro-war propaganda.
Professor Andras Bozoki (Department of Political Science) provided insights on the effect of the war on the upcoming Hungarian elections to AFP, picked up by several outlets. Professor Bozoki also spoke to Hungarian hvg.hu about how Hungarian parties reacted to the war, and published an essay in New School University’s “Democracy Seminar” blog.
Associate Professor Daniel Bochsler (Nationalism Studies), a Balkan expert, was asked by Swiss Blick whether the war in Ukraine could rekindle the extinguished fire in the Balkans.
Associate Professor Michael Labelle (Department of Economics and Business) was quoted by Balkaninsight in an article on how the war in the Ukraine triggers energy dilemma in Central Europe.
Emeritus Professor Peter Balazs was asked by CBC Radio Canada about the Orban government's proximity to Putin's Russia.
Professor Gabor Toka (Department of Political Science) gave expert commentary to Bloomberg how the war next door to Hungary boosts the Hungarian PM's campaign to keep power in Hungary, and discussed on Klub Radio on how the war in the Ukraine influences the Hungarian PM's tactics in terms of the April 3 national elections.
Professor Zsolt Enyedi wrote an OpEd entitled "Ukraine, Russia, and the Bear Hug of Authoritarianism" for Foreign Policy.
Professor Alexander Etkind (Department of International Relations) was interviewed by fanpage.it on Russia’s naval blockade that prevents Ukrainian exports of cereals and risks starving the world. He was also mentioned in a Tagesspiegel article about the newly forming “University of New Europe.” Professor Etkind predicts that growing internal tensions could lead to "defederation" in an interview to infobae.
Assistant Professor Charles Shaw (Department of History) shines light on how Ukraine’s caustic wartime humor has surprising Soviet roots in an article published in Slate, also picked up by many, including the Washington Post.
Assistant Professor Christopher David LaRoche (Department of International Relations) published an OpEd "Ukraine’s Refugees Are Close Enough for European Solidarity" in almendron.com, and he wrote about historical analogies in light of the war in Ukraine in Foreign Policy.
Austrian Der Standard carried two Op-Eds by former Professor Anton Pelinka (Nationalism Studies). See "Russia must face reality" here and “Putin and Pacifism: Catholic Wishful Thinking” here.
Professor Erin Jenne (Department of International Relations) in a Kurier article discusses how the Hungarian Prime Minister’s position on the war scars away even his close allies, and that the tense relationship with Ukraine has not only to do with Orban's proximity to Putin but also with the Hungarian minority within Ukraine.
Associate Professor Alexander Astrov (Department of International Relations) gave expert commentary to ORF about the possibility of the invasion of the Baltic states by Russia. The article was picked up by Hungarian daily Nepszava.
Professor Laszlo Csaba (Department of International Relations) was interviewed by Le Monde.
Professor Aleh Cherp (Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy) was quoted in Swiss magazine Extrakt.
Lead Researcher Dimitry Kochenov (CEU Democracy Institute) spoke on the subject of abolishing passports, see British iNews article. He was interviewed by Italian Radio Radical on Ukraine's admission to the EU, Article 49 TEU and the 'special procedure' of entry requested by President Volodymyr Zelensky, and he participated at a conference entitled "Ukraine in the European Union. Is immediate entry possible?" - the full recording is available on the website of the same radio station here. He was also quoted by CGTN about the mixed reception of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary, and BBC Serbia on the 90-day visa-free stay of many Russians in Serbia.
Researcher Volodymyr Kulikov (Cultural Heritage Studies) was interviewed by The Washington Post for an article about the 'deglobalization' of Moscw, and by Nepszava where he explained the relations of Ukrainians to Russians, and emphasized how the war had united Ukrainian society in an unprecedented way.
Research Affiliate Olena Fedyuk (CEU Democracy Institute) was quoted in an article about Ukrainian guest workers by qubit.hu.
Visiting Fellow Aron Hadas co-wrote a piece in War on the Rocks titled “Is Hungary Ukraine’s Biggest Problem in the European Union?”
PhD student Volodymyr Artiukh (Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology) published an Op-Ed in Open Democracy entitled "The Western Left doesn’t understand Putin – or the world outside the US", and gave expert commentary in Brazilian daily Folha. He was quoted in The Washington Post in an article about the ‘deglobalization’ of Moscow. He also assesses in an article written for New Age how Putin’s shock tactics – mobilization, annexation and nuclear threat – could affect the course of the war.
PhD student Mariana Budjeryn (Department of Political Science) was quoted from her study for the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project in an article about the Budapest Memorandum and how it impacts the current crisis in Ukraine. The article was picked up by several other sources.
PhD student Oleksii Rudenko's (Department of History) efforts to source bulletproof vests for the Ukranian army is featured in this article by GlasgowWorld.
PhD student Luka Lisjak Gabrijelcic (Department of History) discusses in Slovenian daily Primorski what consequences the war on the Ukraine will have for the wider European area.
PhD student Antonio Salvador M. Alcazar III's (Department of Political Science) OpEd "On shared struggles and Bandung" was published on rappler.com.
CEU PhD student Kirill Shamiev (Department of Political Science) was quoted in the New York Times “Atrocities in Ukraine War Have Deep Roots in Russian military.” He explains in inews.co.uk why defeat for Ukraine is not an option due to Russia’s hyper-militarized society. He discusses the resistance to Putin’s draft in the New York Times and later on in INews.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Yektan Turkyilmaz (Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies) commented on how Turkey is seeking to enhance its role as a geopolitical player in spacewar.com and merkur.de.
CEU student Thomas Laffitte (Department of Political Science) discussed in an article in Eurasia Reviewthe prospect of a long war from a Ukrainian point of view and what contributions Kyiv can expect from its homegrown defense industry.
CEU student Alexander Thatcher (Department of History) was mentioned in Eurasiareview in relation to KAFFED, Turkey’s largest North Caucasian organization, in an article about how the war in Ukraine costs Moscow support in ethnic organizations abroad it thought it controlled.
Alumna Ileana Nachescu published an OpEd in Boston Review, republished here entitled "Ukraine: Beyond the Postsoviet".
Alumn Jan Adamec published an OpEd in Forum 24
Alumna Armen Grigoryan wrote an article in New Eastern Europe on how the Kremlin has been eager to draw parallels between its ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the Second World War, stressing the idea that it is fighting Nazism much like in its “glorious” past.
