Csaba BÉKÉS Ph. D.

Contact:

H-1074 Budapest
Dohány u.74.

Phone 361-322-5228
Fax 361-322-3084
bek11339@helka.iif.hu

Education

1978–1983 József Attila University, Szeged, [Majors: History and English language and literature]
1983 M.A.
1989 University Doctor’s degree [History]
1998 Ph.D. Janus Pannonius University, Pécs [History]

Main interest

Cold War History, East–West relations; Hungary's international relations after World War II; The history of European integration

Current book projects

Hungary and the Cold War, 1945–1989
The role of the East Central European states in the Cold War, 1945–1991
The Cambridge History of the Cold War. I have been working on the chapter:Eastern Europe from 1953 to the Aftermath of the 1956 revolutions.(1953–1960).

Positions

1983–1987 Archivist, New Hungarian Central Archives, Budapest
1987–1991 Research librarian, National Széchényi Library, Budapest
1989–1992 Visiting lecturer in history, József Attila University, Szeged
1991– Senior Research Fellow and Research Coordinator (1991–2003), Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Budapest
1997– 2000 Coordinator, Hungarian Program, Project on Openness in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union [Based at the National Security Archive, Washington D.C.]
1998 – Founding Director, Cold War History Research Centre, Budapest

International Cooperation

From 1992 – coordinator of the Hungarian research projects of the Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Washington D.C.

1996–2000 member of the international advisory board of the “Project on Openness in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union”, founded by the National Security Archive in Washington D.C.

From 2000 – member of the international editorial board of the journal Cold War History published by Frank Cass in London.

From 2000 – coordinator of the Hungarian research projects of the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (Washington–Zurich)

From 2001 – member of the international editorial board of the Journal of Cold War Studies published at Harvard University.

2003–2005 – member of the Academic Board of Balassi Bálint Institute in Budapest

From 2003 – member of the international group of scholars working on the three volume book project: The Cambridge History of the Cold War. I have been working on the chapter:Eastern Europe from 1953 to the Aftermath of the 1956 Revolutions.(1953–1960).

From 2004 – coordinator of the Hungarian research projects of the international research project: “East Central Europe and the German Question”, 1956–1975 (Mannheim University)

From 2004 – Associate Member of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics.

Fellowships

1990 London, Visiting fellow, Institute of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University [3 months]
Archival research in the Public Record Office, Kew

1992 United States, Research Fellow, Cold War International History Project, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C. [3 months]
Archival research:
National Archives, Washington D.C.
National Security Archive, Washington D.C.
Eisenhower Library, Abeline, Kansas
Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
United Nations Archives, New York

2001–2002 Center Fellow, Project on the Cold War as Global Conflict, International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University, New York [9 months]

Conferences

Participation at 50 international conferences (for a full list see: CV)

Main publications

Books

Az 1956-os magyar forradalom a világpolitikában [The 1956 Hungarian Revolution and World Politics]. 1956-os Intézet, Budapest, 1996.

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution and World Politics. Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., September, 1996. Working Paper No. 16. [http://cwihp.si.edu]

Rendszerváltozás Magyarországon 1989–1990. Dokumentumok. [Political Transition in Hungary. Documents] Főszerk.: Békés Csaba, Malcolm Byrne, Szerk.: Kalmár Melinda, Ripp Zoltán, Vörös Miklós, National Security Archive, Hidegháború-történeti Kutatóközpont, 1956-os Intézet, 1999

Political Transition in Hungary, 1989–1990. A Compendium of Declassified Documents and Chronology of Events, Eds. Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne, Melinda Kalmár, Zoltán Ripp, Miklós Vörös, National Security Archive, Cold War History Research Center, 1956 Institute, 1999

Cold War, Détente and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Working paper No. 7, Project on the Cold War as Global Conflict, International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University, 2002

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution. A history in documents. Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne, János M. Rainer [eds.] CEU Press, Budapest–New York, 2002, 598 p.

Európából Európába. Magyarország konfliktusok kereszttüzében, 1945–1990. [From Europe to Europe. Hungary in the Crossfire of Conflicts, 1945–1990] Budapest, 2004, Gondolat

Articles

Back to Europe. The International Context of the Political Transition in Hungary, 1988–1990 In: András Bozóki [ed.], The Roundtable Talks of 1989: The Genesis of Hungarian Democracy. Budapest-New York: CEU Press, 2002. pp. 237–272

Titkos válságkezeléstől a politikai koordinációig. Politikai egyeztetési mechanizmus a Varsói Szerződésben, 1954–1967 [From secret crisis management to political coordination. Political coordinating mechanism in the Warsaw Pact, 1954-1967] In: Múlt századi hétköznapok. Tanulmányok a Kádár rendszer kialakulásának időszakáról. [Everydays in the past century. Essays on the period of the emerging of the Kádár regime] Szerk. Rainer M. János, Budapest, 1956-os Intézet, 2003, 9–54 p.

Hungary and the Warsaw Pact, 1954–1989. Documents with an Introduction, Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, web site: www.isn.ethz.ch/php , [250 p.] 2003.

Why was there no “Second Cold War” in Europe? Documents from Hungarian Archives on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Bulletin, Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., Issue 14–15, Winter 2003–Spring 2004, 204–219. [http://cwihp.si.edu]

Magyarország és az európai biztonsági konferencia előkészítése, 1965–1970. [Hungary and the preparation of the CSCE process, 1965–1969] In Évkönyv 2004. 1956-os Intézet. Szerk. Rainer M. János, Standeisky Éva, Budapest, 1956-os Intézet, 2004, 291–309.

Hungarian foreign policy in the Soviet alliance system, 1968–1989. Foreign Policy Review [Budapest],Vol. 3, No. 1 (2004), 87–127.

The Records of the Warsaw Pact Deputy Foreign Ministers (eds.) Csaba Békés, Anna Locher, Christian Nuenlist, Introduction by Csaba Békés, Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, web site: www.isn.ethz.ch/php, 2005.

Hungary and the making of the CSCE Process, 1965–1970. In: Carla Meneguzzi Rostagni (ed.) The Helsinki Process: a historical reappraisal, CEDAM, Padova, 2005, 29–44 pp.