Danube Institute Podcast

We asked Ken Jimbo, Professor of International Relations at Keio University and former Special Advisor to the Minister of Defense, about Japan's preparations for possible Taiwan conflict scenarios. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their uni...

Sean Nottoli worked for the National Endowment for Democracy, via its International Republican Institute, for four years. Both were in turn funded by USAID. At the time, Sean worked on projects including a study of attitudes to the US, Russian and China among Hungarians. Information later pitched to the Hungarian political parties. Elsewhere, he worked on an initiative that coached rising European...

Can you make fish from fish soup? Recently Viktor Orbán reminded Hungarian voters that certain decisions are irreversible. And the world certainly has reached several crossroads right now. This month on View From The Danube, Rod Dreher hosts Philip Pilkington, Callum Nicholson, and Raymond Ibrahim to discuss the Iran war, arguing a failed Trump-administration decapitation strike has shifted into l...

We asked Hessam Habibi Doroh, an expert on Iran, a researcher at the Austrian National Defence Academy, and a PhD candidate at the University of Public Service in Budapest, about the Iran war, its geopolitical context, and the survival chances of the Islamic regime. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decis...

We asked Nadežda Kokotović, Director of the Brussels Energy Club, about what the European energy situation will be like after the introduction of a complete ban on Russian gas and oil. Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas. Host: Tamá...

Philip Pilkington and David Dusenbury dismantle Francis Fukuyama's "end of history" thesis — tracing it from its Hegelian and Kojèvian roots through to its spectacular collision with contemporary geopolitics. As China rises, Russia endures, and the liberal West struggles with demographic decline and institutional decay, Pilkington and Dusenbury ask whether the real question facing bo...

We asked Marwan Abdallah, Head of the Foreign Affairs Department at the Lebanese Kataeb Party, about the rise and fall of Hezbollah and the scope for Christian politics in Lebanon. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas. Host: Tamá...

Things ain’t what they used to be in Conservatism.  By the 1990s, after a decade of Reagan and Thatcher, Conservatives had established an ideology which felt permanent.  Markets, individualism, seriousness on questions of debt and security.  Then came Blair, Clinton, and through that door, a whole new oppositional force, call it the Third Way. Call it The End of History, the Deep State. This new o...

We asked Paul Salem, former CEO and president of the Middle East Institute, about the changing geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique ideas. Host: Tamás Maráczi, a journalist at the Danube Insti...

Alexandre Lefebvre is a Canadian who lives in Sydney. A professor of political philosophy at the University of Sydney, he is the author of five books.  Most recently, Liberalism as a Way of Life  , published in 2024, argued that liberalism functions not just as a political system but as an all-encompassing worldview shaping values, psychology, and ethics in Western democracies.  Today, though, Ale...

We asked Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about about the results of street protests, the pillars of the Islamic regime, and the chances of another Iran war. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – ab...

We asked Radek Vondráček, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and Deputy Leader of the ANO party, about Ukraine's possible EU membership, the future of the V4, the program of the Patriots, and the secret of the ANO party. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think t...

At Davos, a thin sheen of normality was pulled over what was the most abnormal World Economic Forum in its history. It felt less like a swish cocktail party for the global elite — more like the moment in a dive bar before closing, when someone turns on all the lights. America has decided it’s going it alone. Europe might finally be waking up to its folly — but that’s a helluva hangover. At Davos,...

 2026 got off with a bang, some sirens, several subsequent explosions. The were of helicopters, the AK of gunfire and the crisp patting of waves against a destroyer class warship. Three days into the new year, Venezuela's dictator Nicholas Maduro found himself boat bound for New York, where he was paraded through the streets before being arraigned at a district court on charges of narco terror...

We asked Ronen Itsik, an Israeli Senior Researcher and Head of the Military Social Relations Department at the David Institute for Security Policy, about the Gaza ceasefire, the fate of Hamas and Iran, and the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-make...

We asked Mansoor Ahmad Khan, former Ambassador of Pakistan to Afghanistan, Director of the BNU Center for Policy Research in Lahore, and Distinguished Fellow at the Ludovika Public Diplomacy Hub, about Pakistan's geopolitical importance. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, acad...

We asked Alejandro Peña Esclusa, a Venezuelan writer, political analyst, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Fundamental Rights, about the American intervention to capture President Maduro and its political consequences in Venezuela. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, a...

We asked O. Carter Snead, a professor of law and an expert on bioethics, the director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, at Axioma Center's conference in Budapest, about the concept of the human being according to transhumanism and Christianity. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank...

We asked Michael Doran, Director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, for our year-end analysis about the world's three major geopolitical conflicts. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and politicians – about their unique i...

On the 1st of November 2025, President Donald Trump released a statement about the situation facing Christians in Nigeria. He warned that if the Nigerian government failed to protect Christian communities from rising violence, the US might be “forced to step in” to defend them. The tone was characteristically Trumpian - dramatic, blunt, and escalatory - but it touched on a very real issue. Accordi...

We talked to Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish politician, former chairwoman of the Christian Democrats, and former Minister of the Interior of Finland at Axioma Center’s conference in Budapest, about the criminal proceedings initiated against her and the status of freedom of religion and freedom of expression in Finland. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based cons...

On a chilly May morning in 1618, four Catholic lords regent, arrived at the Bohemian Chancellery at 8:30 am, to meet their Protestant counterparts. The agenda was to clarify whether the four regents were responsible for persuading the Emperor to stop Protestant church construction on royal lands. It did not go well. A fracas followed. At the end of which, two regents, plus their secretary, were de...

We talked to Sara Mohammad Amin Falaknaz, a member of the UAE Federal National Council and Chairman of the UAE-Hungary Friendship Committee, about gender equality, the geopolitical stance of the UAE, and the UAE-Hungary relationship. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, a...

For years, we were told to obey the science, and seek the facts. Well, the facts are in. No dispute. Mortality from Covid was .25 percent of the global population. The 1919 Spanish Flu epidemic killed between 2.5 and 5 per cent. It is an order of magnitude smaller. The same ratio of 10:1 applies to the infection fatality rate. In fact, for a 40 year old, it had the same Infection Fatality Rate as...

We asked Tomohiko Taniguchi, a Distinguished Fellow of the Ludovika Public Diplomacy Hub, President of Nippon Kaigi, and Former Special Advisor to PM Shinzo Abe, about the geopolitical turbulences surrounding his country, Japan. The Danube Lectures is a video podcast of the Danube Institute, a Budapest-based conservative think tank that asks its guests – decision-makers, experts, academics, and po...