History meets the ‘mafia state’? Hungary and the (de)securitisation of built cultural heritage in Slovakia

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article examines the securitisation of Hungarian purchases of cultural built heritage in Slovakia in 2021–2023. It demonstrates that, while the material existence of this heritage had not been in any way endangered, it nevertheless became intimately intertwined with the broader anxieties and fears of irredentism and territorial revisionism, stemming from persisting conflicts in memory politics and from the Hungarian government’s controversial and non-transparent approach to its neighbours. It demonstrates how the conflicting national(ist) narratives are reinforced by a lack of basic transparency, resulting from the political economy and power techniques of the ‘illiberal’ political regimes which some political scientists dub ‘the mafia state’. The article draws on insights from critical security studies, critical heritage studies and the ontological security theory.