Hungary’s Relations with the BRICS in the Context of the Changing World Order

Today’s foreign policy formulae need soft power as an essential dimension. On one hand, China has institutionalized soft power, recognizing its potential to counter American global influence. Meanwhile, India is continuing to follow its long tradition of cultural engagement with the rest of the world, as it has down the ages, with some greater governmental inputs and initiatives. Indian culture has a ‘visa’ since olden days that permeates willing borders. Regardless of intentions, Indian and Chinese soft power will play a significant role in shaping foreign policies of the two countries set to lead the ‘changing world order’. It is also interesting to observe that the world since ancient times innately desires knowledge about Indian traditions. On the Chinese front, the globe rather has an added business dimension of interest in getting to know about the world’s largest economy. In an era of rising nationalism, it remains to be seen if political foreign policy will affect the sending out and receiving of soft power schemes. However, the ‘changing world order’ cannot be governed by economic and strategic elements alone. It will be studied, whether in an age of technology and visual gratification, if India and China can balance political imperatives with cultural contours. The above factors will be analyzed to infer the impact of Indian and Chinese soft power and whether both countries are achieving their desired outcomes via soft power channels.

The global order has been changing, becoming less Europe-centred. In this context, the paper critically examines the coloniality of power embedded in European Union (EU) foreign policy narratives, with a focus on Josep Borrell’s 2022 ‘Garden and Jungle’ speech. The study situates its empirical analysis within the shifting geopolitical context post-2022. The EUropean discourse strives to restore its once hegemonic global power position, with growing popularity of the idea of ‘Make Europe Great Again!’ (Hungarian Presidency 2024) (echoing rhetoric similar to that of the German EU presidency earlier: ‘Gemeinsam. Europa wieder stark machen’ (Bundesregierung.de 2020)). In the face of geopolitical conflicts shaping European foreign policy, such as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israeli military forces’ attack on Palestinians on the Gaza Strip, the underlying logic of Othering and Europe’s hardening understanding of its power have been unfolding (Oleart & Roch 2025: 2). The EU’s foreign policy narrative has moved away from the post-war project of a ‘peaceful’ and ‘soft-powered’ actor toward adopting the ‘language of power’ and embracing a ‘European sovereignty’. Therefore, I argue that at a time when the EU is losing its relative weight in global geopolitics, EUropean leaders tend to use colonial echoes strategically in political discourses signalling a dominant position over the Other and marking a clear border between the imagined Europe and the ‘Jungle’. Drawing on postcolonial theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study seeks to reveal how official EU foreign policy narratives reinforce asymmetrical power structures once cemented at the height of Western European colonialism towards non-European counterparts. I emphasise the continuity of the coloniality of power since the EU’s very conception, which is rooted in the loss of global dominance following the collapse of Western European colonial empires. From this historical perspective, I regard Borrell’s framing of EUrope – drawing on colonial tropes of moral and developmental superiority, especially in its relations with Latin America – as an attempt to preserve the global power position that Western Europe occupied during the era of colonial empires. The paper does not aim merely to point out the ‘immorality or inappropriateness’ of Borrell’s use of the Jungle rhetoric; rather, it argues that, beyond the linguistic expressions, there is an underlying colonial paradigm (Orbie et al. 2023). By empirically showing the enduring influence of colonial narratives in EU foreign policy, such as the implicit and explicit construction of the ‘Other’, this paper contributes to debates on ‘exclusion with access’. It exposes the coloniality of power that underpins current EU institutional foreign policy discourse and advocates for a postcolonial rethinking of EU external relations.

«М’ЯКА СИЛА» ЯК ХАРАКТЕРНА ОЗНАКА ПОЛІТИЧНОГО ВПЛИВУ ВЕЛИКОЇ ДЕРЖАВИ ЗАУМОВ БАГАТОПОЛЯРНОГО СВІТУ В ЛАТИНОАМЕРИКАНСЬКОМУ РЕГІОНІ

In the practice of international relations, states can pursue different combinations of foreign policy strategies at different systemic levels. The positions of Southern regional powers such as Brazil, on the one hand, between the centre and periphery of the current world system and, on the other hand, at the nexus of international and regional politics, demand particularly complex foreign policy strategies. Strategic approaches have to consider at least three contextual factors: firstly, the continuing superiority of established (the United States) and emerging (China) global actors in terms of material power; secondly, the fact that regional and global affairs are increasingly interrelated; and thirdly, the fact that foreign policy strategies are mapped out against the background of an international system moving from a unipolar to a multipolar order. I argue that Southern regions and their leaders will play a pivotal part in the course of that global transformation as well as in the future world order. The purpose of this paper is to discuss Brazil's strategic foreign policy options after unipolarity. To approach this task, a top-down approach starting at the global level seems most promising. First, I will discuss the potential transformation of the international system and the middle-power role of Brazil in the course of that process, especially with regard to its role in the G3, or India, Brazil and South Africa. Second, I will locate Brazil in its region, analyse its relations with secondary power Venezuela, and ask for strategic options at the regional level. Third, the conclusion will stress the increasing interrelatedness of global and regional affairs, pointing out strategies applied by Brazil in order to become a decision maker in a future multipolar world.

The direction of India's foreign policy, their guiding principles and policy preferences articulated by the government has, indeed, changed considerably since the mid-1990s. A change that has been characterized prematurely by some analysts as a transition from an idealist to a realist position. The liberal analysis of foreign policy focuses exclusively on the pressure exerted by societal groups and does not sufficiently explain the shift in Indian foreign and foreign economic policy. This approach may function if the focus is restricted to the very small circle close to the political leaders. It has often, surprisingly, been noted that the Indian foreign policy elite has enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in decision-making. Not only with regard to interest groups trying to influence foreign policy in consolidated democracies, but also with regard to core political institutions. The hesitant acknowledgment by the Indian elite that India would fall behind the Asian competitors if it pursued its traditional economic and foreign policies.

Introduction. The ongoing transformation of the global order has significantly altered the security landscape in the South Caucasus and wider — Eurasia, as evidenced by the 2020 Artsakh War and the 2022 Ukraine conflict. Goals. The paper examines how these shifts impact the foreign and security policy planning of small states, with Armenia as a case study. It analyzes the evolving geopolitical environment in the region, focusing on the strategic interests of key actors — Russia, Turkey, the US, and the EU — and their implications for Armenia. The main novelty of the article is some specific emphasis on the fact of geopolitical importance of the transforming Middle East for the South Caucasus and Armenia, in particular. Materials and methods. Involving strategic documents, official statements, discourse analysis, and expert interviews, the study evaluates Armenia’s multi-vector foreign policy since its independence (1991) and explores its capacity for strategic maneuvering or geopolitical realignment amid systemic changes. The paper applies neorealist theory, particularly the black box concept, to assess Armenia’s adaptation strategies, including its efforts to position itself as a regional connectivity hub between East-West and North-South transport corridors. Methodologically, the research employs discourse analysis, scenario modeling, and trade/economic indicators, as well as the expert interviews. Results. The article examines the emerging geopolitical landscape of the region after the Artsakh War and the Ukrainian crisis. The analysis of key players (Russia, Turkey, USA, EU) and their interests identifies the main factors of change, which in turn largely determine Armenia’s foreign policy course. The study focuses on strategic documents, official statements, discourse analysis, and expert interviews to determine Armenia’s strategic priorities. The concept of a multi-vector foreign policy that Armenia has pursued since gaining independence in 1991 is also considered. Based on theoretical approaches to the study of foreign policy planning of small states, the work assesses the possibilities for strategic maneuver or ‘geopolitical choice’ in the changing world order. The article refers to the neorealist theory of the ‘black box’, arguing that in the conditions of the new reality, Armenia seeks to adapt and ensure its own security, and position itself as a connecting node between the East-West and North-South transport corridors.

Populism has emerged as a transformative force in global politics, questioning the legitimacy of liberal democratic institutions and reshaping the contours of foreign policy—especially in emerging powers governed by populist leadership. This article investigates the intersection between domestic populist governance and international revisionism, focusing on Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP). It argues that populism in power reconfigures not only the institutional architecture of the domestic political arena but is also conducive to revisionist agendas at the international level. This revisionist ambition is anti-institutional at its core, averse to processes of mediation and deliberation and favors more personalistic, less transparent politics, usually affirming the leader's direct, personalized mandate from “the people”. In Turkey's case, this transformation marks a departure from the founding Kemalist principle of “Peace at home, peace in the world” toward a more assertive foreign policy orientation that might be described as “Revisionism at home, revisionism in the world.” The AKP's discourse merges sovereignty and injustice into a populist logic that positions Turkey as both a regional power and a moral actor in global politics. This revisionist posture has been especially evident in Turkey's peacemaking engagements, where humanitarianism and diplomacy are mobilized as instruments of strategic assertion. The central question guiding this analysis is: What is the relationship between Turkey's domestic populist political imagination and its revisionist foreign and peacebuilding policies? And what does this relationship reveal about the international behavior of populist regimes more broadly? These questions are addressed through a focus on Somalia. With Turkey's strategic presence in the country spanning over 15 years, the case of Somalia offers a critical vantage point to observe Turkey's shift from reformist multilateralism to populist-revisionist assertiveness, and a critical site in which domestic narratives of injustice, contested sovereignty, and national vindication are projected outward and reconfigured as a distinctive mode of international engagement. Methodologically, the article adopts a discursive approach, treating discourse as both performative and constitutive—a practice that not only represents but enacts political realities. It emphasizes how populist-revisionist foreign policy is animated by symbolic narratives, historically situated emotional economies, and appeals to national memory and grievance. This analysis highlights how populist leaders translate domestic logics of sovereignty, justice, and moral exceptionalism into international conduct, contributing to an emerging foreign policy paradigm that disrupts liberal international norms. By examining Turkey's evolving international engagements, this article offers insight into how populism travels across scales—from domestic arenas to the global stage—reshaping not only institutions but the meanings and practices of foreign policy itself.

This chapter analyses how the EU as a foreign and security policy actor is affected by a changing world order. Fagersten argues that the EU is in many ways a product of the liberal order that has shaped international relations since 1945. But the liberal order is now being shaken to its foundations, as manifest in various ways in Europe. The author argues that the turbulence is leading to a fragmented world order in which cooperation among state and non-state actors is patchy and occurring in changing constellations. Furthermore, two overarching logics of interaction co-exist side by side: cooperation-oriented globalization and geopolitical competition, although they are affecting various policy areas in different ways. To determine how this fragmented world order is affecting the EU as a foreign and security policy actor, Fagersten develops an analytical framework that stipulates that a collective actor needs coherence (consensus), capacity (resources for pursuing policy), and context (a permissive setting).

The subject of the research in this article is the history of the formation of the resources of the "soft power" of the Italian Republic. The object of research in this article is the activities and experience of the Italian Republic in the XX century within the framework of foreign cultural policy to promote a positive image of the country on the basis of its own national culture and its components. The article aims to provide an overview of the development of the concept of "soft power", the history of its formation, as well as the study of Italy's experience in using its cultural heritage as tools for forming a positive image of its national culture abroad. The study of this issue in several directions, depending on the goals of the state, allowed us to consider in dynamics what was the basis for the current state and functioning of foreign cultural policy, in Italian practice based mainly on elements of national culture. One of the key aspects of the formation of Italy's soft power resources is its rich cultural heritage. Italy is known for its great works of art, architecture, music, cuisine and fashion. These cultural elements have become an important tool for attracting attention and respect to the country abroad. When using general scientific methods of information analysis and synthesis, observation, systematization, classification, interpretation and forecasting, the main milestones of the development of "soft power" in the Italian Republic are examined in detail, which makes it possible to trace on which resources the popularization of national culture is based and which areas have been allocated by the state over time to increase the attractiveness and prestige of the country, as well as establishing trusting relationships with potential partners. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that today the connection between national culture and soft power is an important aspect of the state's foreign policy, which arouses some interest in the topic. The interest in studying this aspect is also explained by the fact that today the skillful application of the policy of "soft power" comes to the fore in cultural diplomacy, which shows the country's ability to achieve its goals through the attractiveness of its lifestyle, values and culture, and not through military force, implying the emergence of certain threats. In connection with the conclusions obtained, it is possible to identify how the development of modern trends in the transmission of the image of national culture developed, which are now actively promoted by the Italian Republic through the policy of "soft power", contributing to the establishment of friendly relations, increasing prestige and increasing influence in the international arena.

This paper is an assessment to determine the role of Indian states in Indian foreign policy making and tries to systematically analyse the factors that contribute to the rise of the state's role in shaping Indian foreign policy. The relevance of the state's role will increase with the geography of India's position in the subcontinent, as most of the Indian states barring a few, share international borders and have historical and cultural connections with trans-border nations. Thus, regional issues impact India's subnational units' interests and influence the decision-making in Indian foreign policy and India's regional cooperation. This is an enquiry about the role of states in Indian foreign policy to see the push-pull effect of states on bilateral foreign policy decisions. It examined and analysed whether the role and influence of states have been different when they were part of the coalition government at the Centre from the case when they were not part of the government in New Delhi. Indian Constitution, parliament discussion, national interests and prevalent political structure have evolved foreign policy decision-making over time, which is dynamic due to the influence of domestic politics and India’s aspirations of emergence in the world order. In India's foreign policy, the Centre has acted dominantly and exclusively based on the philosophy that the Centre should control international affairs without any inferences by the federal units of the Union. The Constitution nowhere describes the polity as federal. However, the features, distribution of powers and characteristics indicate that it predominantly works as a federation in times of peace and acts as a unitary government during an emergency. Lately, with the emergence of the coalition government in India and the changed world order after 1991, it has been seen that states were reaching out from their limited autonomy and actively interacting with external actors for their interests which remained coupled with national interests. Federal polity relations between the Centre and states are crucial in determining the effectiveness of policy and governance. Deeper penetration of democratisation within the society and an open and expanding economy has given space to subunits to influence foreign policy. Later, when India opened its markets for foreign investment, the Centre assumed the role of regulator and patron of the state's ties with external agencies. This changing economic scenario and the advent of globalisation factors like the state's economic conditions, capabilities and cultural ties became important factors, leveraging their role in India's foreign policy. While analysing the role of states in Indian foreign policy, West Bengal's role in influencing the neighbourhood policy with Bangladesh is significant and cannot be neglected. Similarly, Tamilnadu's active role in India's policy towards Sri Lanka is noticeable.

In the early 1990s, as the Cold War came to a close and the Soviet Union disintegrated, Turkey appeared to be the rising star in Eurasia. Then President Turgut Ozal articulated a vision of his coun...

Turkey's pivot to Eurasia: geopolitics and foreign policy in a changing world order

This article argues that there is a close relationship between the structure of the international system/order and how states define their foreign policy interests and then act accordingly. The main contention is that Turkey’s foreign policy performance since 2002 can be partially read as Turkey’s effort to adapt to external developments at international and regional levels. As the international system has evolved from a unipolar order (in which the United States, in cooperation with its European allies, provided the main public goods in an hegemonic fashion), into a post-unipolar era, Turkey has accelerated its efforts to pursue a more multi-dimensional and multi-directional foreign approach. Rather than arguing that there is a direct causation between the independent variable of systemic factors and the dependent variable of Turkey’s foreign policy performance, this article understands the external environment as a ‘context’ in which Turkish decision makers have responded to Turkey’s responses to foreign policy issues.

This book discusses the multiple implications of the war against Ukraine for the EU political system. It draws on a number of different authors to analyse the main dimensions of the Russian attack on Ukraine and the subsequent large-scale war, which impact the global order and EU foreign policy. In the context of war and Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU needs to position itself in a changing world order, internal and external challenges to liberal democracy and the development of its strategic autonomy. In various chapters of the book, the development and strengthening of strategic partnership and friendship with Ukraine is considered by the EU as one of the central foreign policy priorities. Without the support of the Ukrainian partner, it is difficult for the EU to achieve positive results in European politics and play the role of an influential power in the international arena. In this context, various authors note that only the formation of political and economic ties between the EU and Ukraine will be the optimal way out of the full-scale war and crisis that Ukraine has found itself in. Only the combination of opportunities and efforts will allow the Ukrainian political elite and society to eventually stand on par with leading European countries.

One of the features of international relations in the 21st century is the use by developed countries of the concept of "soft power" in the implementation of a long-term international strategy. A striking example is the rapidly developing state of China in recent years. The concept of "soft power" implies the desire of the Chinese government to spread its national language and culture around the world. The main reason why countries easily and quickly accept this policy is the growth of China's economic influence in the world, as well as the development and mutual interest of trade and economic ties with countries around the world. Therefore, the interest of the countries of the world to China has increased, the desire to study its language and historical culture has increased. China began to pursue a policy of generalizing the Chinese language and culture to the world by creating institutions named after Confucius, the great humanist thinker. Thus, the teaching of Chinese has become an important content of China's foreign policy. Language policy and language planning have always been an effective tool in solving a number of issues of domestic and foreign policy, and in the context of today's globalization, its importance has increased. In recent years, the urgency of the problem of foreign language policy is growing day by day, and the place of individual actions taken by states in this direction is occupied by a purposefully planned foreign language policy. Consideration of the purpose, subjects and means, mechanisms of language policy, as well as its relationship with the concept of "soft power", which has become increasingly widely used, is becoming an interesting and important object of study today. In modern geopolitical conditions, China's policy in this area attracts the attention of the whole world. The article emphasizes that the PRC's "One Belt One Road" project is a new model for globalization, it intends to make efforts both in the economy and in the humanitarian sphere. Since the introduction of this project, China has been actively promoting the Chinese language and Chinese culture in our country.