Balázs Tárnok is Managing Director of the Europe Strategy Research Institute at the University of Public Service, Deputy Director of the Training Program on National Minorities at the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, and Adviser at the Institute for the Protection of Minority Rights. He is a founding member of Freedom and Identity in Central Europe (FICE). He received his JD, LLM and PhD in law at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, and specializes in minority rights, EU law and policies. In 2021, he was Hungary Foundation’s visiting research fellow at the University of Notre Dame. He has published articles in Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Newsweek, and The Washington Times.
Experts
Lilla Nóra Kiss
Lilla Nóra Kiss is a Visiting Scholar and an adjunct faculty at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University, where she conducts comparative research on how the US and EU regulate social media and teaches Antitrust Law. She has JD, LLM, and PhD degrees and has conducted international law programs and taught EU law. She was nominated for the Wolters Kluwer Law Award in 2021 and has served as senior counselor at Hungarian Ministry of Justice. She has over 100 scientific records and is a founding editor of Constitutional Discourse and founding member of Freedom and Identity in Central Europe.
Mónika Palotai
Mónika Palotai is a Visiting Research Fellow at Hudson Institute who specializes in International Law, EU law and Energy Security. She has a background in media and has worked in the private sector of aviation and energy in the UAE, where she studied Arabic Language and Sharia Law. She has a JD, and is currently pursuing her PhD on regulatory challenges of private military and security companies. She has published articles on EU law, international law, and energy security in multiple publications. She is fluent in Hungarian, English, French, and has advanced knowledge in Arabic and also an accomplished equestrian.
George E. Bogden
George E. Bogden is a Strategy & Policy Fellow, Senior Visiting Researcher at Bard College, and Helmut Schmidt Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He will serve as an Olin Fellow at Columbia Law School in the 2022-2023 academic year. He previously served as an inaugural Senior Fellow at the Hungary Foundation and the first Associate Director of the Center for the Future of Liberal Society at the Hudson Institute. He is a commentator whose work has appeared in multiple publications and he has been recognized for his research with multiple awards, including the Brussels Forum Young Writers Award and the Trench Gascoigne Essay Contest. He earned his B.A. from Yale and served as the Joseph C. Fox Fellow in Istanbul.
Benedek Varsányi
Benedek Varsányi is a counselor at the Constitutional Court of Hungary, pursuing LL.M. degree at UCLA School of Law in Technology and Media Law as a Fulbright Foreign Student Grantee. He has a JD from Eötvös Loránd University, with specialization in legislative drafting. He has gained experience in constitutional law, working in multiple positions in the Ministry of Justice in Hungary and at the Constitutional Court of Hungary. He has participated in International Visitor Leadership Program and pro bono supervisory board member of Carpathian Foundation-Hungary.
Luke Larson
Luke Larson currently serves as a visiting fellow at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest. A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Luke has lived and worked in Hungary since 2020. During the 2022-2023 academic year, he participated in the Hungary Foundation’s Budapest Fellowship program, writing articles on trends in European politics, social issues, and the intersection of faith and society that have appeared in publications such as The American Conservative, National Catholic Register, and The American Mind.