First Istvan Hont Graduate Conference in Political Thought
War and Peace in Political Thought
Conference report
This September, the Hungarian capital, Budapest, hosted the First Istvan Hont Graduate Conference in Political Thought. The conference was jointly organized by Central European University (CEU), Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE) and commemorated the legacy of Istvan Hont (1947-2013). Istvan Hont was a Fellow of King’s College at the University of Cambridge and an influential Hungarian-born lecturer and writer on the history of political thought. Hont’s work fundamentally re-shaped our understanding of the rise of political economy in the 18th century and its relationship to the foundations of modern politics. He was deeply interested in Enlightenment theories about commerce and sociability while relating these issues to the questions of liberalism, economic nationalism and roots of globalization. The conference was devoted to the topic of ‘War and Peace in Political Thought’.
The main goal of the organizers was to highlight the international and multidisciplinary character of the conference. Participants arrived from sixteen universities from all over the world – mainly from the European continent, such as France or Serbia, but also from the USA, Israel, Turkey and Nigeria. As the conference was hosted by three universities, it had different venues every day. Logistics was, therefore, slightly challenged, but the participants had the opportunity to immediately experience spaces particular to the three different universities: a public state university (ELTE), a private university (CEU) and a Catholic university (PPKE). The interdisciplinary nature of the conference was reflected in the wide-range of themes. Panels covered topics such as the relatively new phenomenon of “Cyberwar”, the relationship of “Intellectuals and War” in history, or various “Theoretical Approaches”. Participants valued positively the disciplinary diversity, and although some of them considered some panels at first-sight far away from their own interest – afterwards, they admitted to found themselves deeply engaged in the very same panel discussions.
The conference was honoured to host two keynote lectures on the history of political thought. On the first day, at Eötvös Loránd University, Professor Catherine Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, gave a lecture about “The Classical Realists”: On the Causes of War and Prospects for Peace. In her talk, she focused on the ideas of Thucydides, Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. The second day at CEU was closed with a second keynote lecture, delivered by Professor Hans Blom from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, entitled What is natural law (really?). On the last day at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, after the participant presentations, the keynote lecturers were kind enough to chair the concluding discussion of the conference. One of the main conclusions of the closing session was that there seems to be a growing discrepancy between the theoretical and methodological tools researchers have at their disposal and the subject of their research, actual political phenomena – a discrepancy that young researchers, like the participants of this conference themselves, need to address in the near future.
Conference website and more photos: hontconf2015.wordpress.com
Videos of the event:
Inteviews:
Professor Hans Blom's keynote lecture:
Organizing Committee:
- Dóra Kis-Jakab (ELTE)
- Alexandra Medzibrodszky (CEU)
- Dániel Gergely Nagy (ELTE)
- Tamás Paár (PPKE)
- Gergely Szilvay (PPKE)
Advisory Committee:
- Prof. Ferenc Hörcher (PPKE)
- Prof. Mária Ludassy (ELTE)
- Prof. László Kontler (CEU)
- Prof. Matthias Riedl (CEU)