Program: Budapest Fellowship Program
Year: 2021
Host Institution: Institute of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Research Focus: Black Sea Security and its Impact on Eastern and Central Europe
Quote: “The Black Sea’s important geostrategic location at the confluence of the Middle East, Europe, and Russia means events that transpire in the basin have wide-ranging ripple effects throughout Eastern and Central Europe and beyond.”
Read his introduction here: hungaryfoundation.org
To build on his academic and professional experiences, Michael earned an MLitt in conflict studies from the University of Glasgow, where he graduated with distinction. He afterward developed a specialization on maritime security while working for the Stable Seas program at a United States-based think tank called One Earth Future Foundation. The program worked with both qualitative and quantitative research methods to produce threat assessments and generate policy advice for civilian and military institutions.
The Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) is a separate legal entity under the Center for Democracy Public Foundation (DEMKK in Hungarian) operating as the leading Hungarian foreign policy think-tank. IFAT is carrying out active research in fields covering the priorities of the Hungarian foreign policy. IFAT is present in the Hungarian professional network with public research reports and analyses (often involving associate fellows and outside experts), but also with confidential reports, studies and other professional materials. IFAT is the successor of the previous Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA) and the Teleki László Foundation, which have been the focal institutions covering foreign policy research in Hungary earlier.
The Institute publishes the only foreign policy journal of Hungary, Külügyi Szemle (Foreign Policy Review). The “KKI Tanulmányok” and the ”KKI Elemzések” as well as their English correspondent versions: KKI Studies and KKI Policy Brief are to be found among our online publications.
The Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade aims to actively shape the domestic professional network of foreign policy and foreign trade discourse, while reaching out to the wider public as well. The Institute organises (mostly) public roundtable discussions, private briefings, workshops, smaller and larger conferences in Hungarian and English, and it serves as the exclusive venue for the public lectures and forums of high-ranking foreign delegations visiting the representatives of the Hungarian Government.