Balázs Szalontai
Biographic Data
| ID | 5231545 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Balázs Szalontai |
| GIVEN NAMES | Balázs |
| FAMILY NAME | Szalontai |
| SIGNATURE | SZALONTAI B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Kwangwoon University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2207-9106 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Hungary, the USSR, and the Cold War
Csaba Békés, Hungary's Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War II to the Fall of the Soviet Union. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022. 400 pp. $39.95.Thanks to the Hungarian Archives Act of 1995, which made pre-1990 records accessible to the public, scholars interested in the diplomatic history of the Hungarian Communist regime have rarely been hindered by the so-called 30-year rule.1 Nor have they encounter…
North Korea Discovers the Maghreb
The paper examines the formative phase of Pyongyang’s diplomacy toward Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania through the lenses of North Korean propaganda. It points out that the DPRK leaders' initial views of this distant and little-known region were heavily shaped by the information transmitted by their Soviet bloc allies, and they showed less interest in the Maghreb than East Germany and North Vietnam. When they did develop a more distinct…
Maneuvering between Baghdad and Tehran
This article explores how North Korean leaders tried to maneuver between Iran and Iraq to gain greater leverage in the Cold War. Both of these Middle Eastern countries seemed potentially attractive partners for Pyongyang, but they were often on hostile terms with each other. The article considers how the Iraq-Iran rivalry and domestic changes in Iraq and Iran affected North Korean policy. Even when Pyongyang's cooperation with one or the other of…
Take-Off in an Inhospitable Climate
The article examines the role of infrastructure, governance, and political stability in the development of export-oriented manufacturing ( EOM ) in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, comparing their experiences with Africa’s slower industrial growth. These factors occupy a prominent place in transaction cost economics, and the World Bank’s development programs strongly stressed infrastructure building and good governance. The artic…
Intensification of Ex Situ Bioremediation of Soils Polluted with Used Lubricant Oils
Used lubricant oils (ULOs) strongly bind to soil particles and cause persistent pollution. In this study, soil microcosm experiments were conducted to model the ex situ bioremediation of a long term ULO-polluted area. Biostimulation and various inoculation levels of bioaugmentation were applied to determine the efficacy of total petrol hydrocarbon (TPH) removal. ULO-contaminated soil microcosms were monitored for microbial respiration, colony-for…
The USSR, Asia, and the End of the Cold War
Sergey Radchenko, Unwanted Visionaries: The Soviet Failure in Asia at the End of the Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 383 pp.Editor's Note: The academic literature on the end of the Cold War has focused predominantly on the Cold War in Europe. Few studies have appeared of Soviet policy toward Asia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sergey Radchenko's book Unwanted Visionaries partly redresses this imbalance by offering a detaile…
The “Sole Legal Government of Vietnam”
Earlier historical studies often suggested that the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin, distrustful as he was of Ho Chi Minh's policies and attributing little importance to Vietnam, remained unwilling to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam until the Chinese Communist leaders threw their weight behind their Vietnamese comrades. On the basis of Soviet press articles, Hungarian archival documents, United Nations (UN) records, and other sources, thi…
Solidarity within limits
This article examines how Interkit, the Soviet-controlled ‘anti-China International’, evaluated the development of Sino-Indochinese relations, and which contribution the Vietnamese and Laotian delegations made to the forum’s meetings. It investigates how the various shifts in Sino-Soviet and Soviet-US relations enhanced or reduced Vietnam’s relative importance in Soviet strategy. It describes how the Kremlin sought to dissuade its East European s…
Immunity to Resistance? State-Society Relations and Political Stability in North Korea in a Comparative Perspective
Purpose - This article investigates whether certain social and subnational groups that have shown resistance against other one-party states might play a similar role in North Korea. Design/methodology/approach - Comparing the DPRK with various Communist regimes and Baathist party-states in Syria and Iraq, this article examines the following social groups as potential factors of resistance: industrial workers, private entrepreneurs, and religious,…
Modern China-Myanmar Relations
This book, a breathtakingly panoramic analysis of Sino-Burmese relations from 1949 to the present, demonstrates that this traditionally neutralist Southeast Asian country occupied a more significant role in Beijing's Cold War strategy than one would assume from the standard monographs on China's policy in Asia, focused as they are on the battlefields of Korea and Indochina.From China's perspective, the importance of Burma (or, by its current offi…
China’s Controversial Role in North Korea’s Economic Transformation
This article investigates the causes of North Korea’s failure to pursue export-oriented industrialization, and examines whether Sino-North Korean economic cooperation might facilitate such a transformation or not. It concludes that Sino-North Korean economic interactions are more likely to reinforce North Korea’s traditional resource dependency than to stimulate export-oriented industrialization
In the Shadow of Vietnam
North Korea pursued a highly confrontational strategy vis-à-vis South Korea and the United States throughout the 1960s. This article places Pyongyang's strategy into the context of the Vietnam War. Recently declassified evidence reveals that certain North Korean actions, including the Blue House raid in January 1968 and a series of belligerent acts committed in 1970, were considerably influenced by the military operations in Vietnam and Cambodia.…
The Prospects of Economic Reform in North Korea
The article investigates the political and diplomatic factors influencing the prospects of North Korea's post-2002 experiment with market-oriented economic reforms. Comparing the North Korean situation with the experiences of Yugoslavia, China and Vietnam, it concludes that a certain degree of political liberalisation, the successful normalisation of P'y[ocheck]ngyang's relations with the US, South Korea and Japan, and the decoupling of foreign e…
James V. Young, Eye on Korea
July 01 2010 James V. Young, Eye on Korea: An Insider Account of Korean-American Relations Bálazs Szalontai Bálazs Szalontai Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Bálazs Szalontai Online ISSN: 1531-3298 Print ISSN: 1520-3972 © 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology2010 Journal of Cold War Studies (2010) 12 (3): 155–157. https://…
Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56
Hungarian archival documents suggest that although the North Vietnamese regime did not execute as many persons during its land reform campaign as its foreign critics claimed, it had to cope with serious political and socioeconomic discontent in the first post-liberation years. The various difficulties that generated this discontent were partly rooted in the legacy of French rule and the abrupt partition of the country, but DRV policies were not b…
The Dynamic of Repression
Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56
Hungarian archival documents suggest that although the North Vietnamese regime did not execute as many persons during its land reform campaign as its foreign critics claimed, it had to cope with serious political and socioeconomic discontent in the first post-liberation years. The various difficulties that generated this discontent were partly rooted in the legacy of French rule and the abrupt partition of the country, but DRV policies were not b…
The Prospects of Economic Reform in North Korea
The article investigates the political and diplomatic factors influencing the prospects of North Korea's post-2002 experiment with market-oriented economic reforms. Comparing the North Korean situation with the experiences of Yugoslavia, China and Vietnam, it concludes that a certain degree of political liberalisation, the successful normalisation of P'y[ocheck]ngyang's relations with the US, South Korea and Japan, and the decoupling of foreign e…
The “Sole Legal Government of Vietnam”
Earlier historical studies often suggested that the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin, distrustful as he was of Ho Chi Minh's policies and attributing little importance to Vietnam, remained unwilling to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam until the Chinese Communist leaders threw their weight behind their Vietnamese comrades. On the basis of Soviet press articles, Hungarian archival documents, United Nations (UN) records, and other sources, thi…
The Dynamic of Repression
Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56
Hungarian archival documents suggest that although the North Vietnamese regime did not execute as many persons during its land reform campaign as its foreign critics claimed, it had to cope with serious political and socioeconomic discontent in the first post-liberation years. The various difficulties that generated this discontent were partly rooted in the legacy of French rule and the abrupt partition of the country, but DRV policies were not b…
James V. Young, Eye on Korea
July 01 2010 James V. Young, Eye on Korea: An Insider Account of Korean-American Relations Bálazs Szalontai Bálazs Szalontai Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Bálazs Szalontai Online ISSN: 1531-3298 Print ISSN: 1520-3972 © 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology2010 Journal of Cold War Studies (2010) 12 (3): 155–157. https://…
In the Shadow of Vietnam
North Korea pursued a highly confrontational strategy vis-à-vis South Korea and the United States throughout the 1960s. This article places Pyongyang's strategy into the context of the Vietnam War. Recently declassified evidence reveals that certain North Korean actions, including the Blue House raid in January 1968 and a series of belligerent acts committed in 1970, were considerably influenced by the military operations in Vietnam and Cambodia.…
The Prospects of Economic Reform in North Korea
The article investigates the political and diplomatic factors influencing the prospects of North Korea's post-2002 experiment with market-oriented economic reforms. Comparing the North Korean situation with the experiences of Yugoslavia, China and Vietnam, it concludes that a certain degree of political liberalisation, the successful normalisation of P'y[ocheck]ngyang's relations with the US, South Korea and Japan, and the decoupling of foreign e…
China’s Controversial Role in North Korea’s Economic Transformation
This article investigates the causes of North Korea’s failure to pursue export-oriented industrialization, and examines whether Sino-North Korean economic cooperation might facilitate such a transformation or not. It concludes that Sino-North Korean economic interactions are more likely to reinforce North Korea’s traditional resource dependency than to stimulate export-oriented industrialization
Immunity to Resistance? State-Society Relations and Political Stability in North Korea in a Comparative Perspective
Purpose - This article investigates whether certain social and subnational groups that have shown resistance against other one-party states might play a similar role in North Korea. Design/methodology/approach - Comparing the DPRK with various Communist regimes and Baathist party-states in Syria and Iraq, this article examines the following social groups as potential factors of resistance: industrial workers, private entrepreneurs, and religious,…
Modern China-Myanmar Relations
This book, a breathtakingly panoramic analysis of Sino-Burmese relations from 1949 to the present, demonstrates that this traditionally neutralist Southeast Asian country occupied a more significant role in Beijing's Cold War strategy than one would assume from the standard monographs on China's policy in Asia, focused as they are on the battlefields of Korea and Indochina.From China's perspective, the importance of Burma (or, by its current offi…
Solidarity within limits
This article examines how Interkit, the Soviet-controlled ‘anti-China International’, evaluated the development of Sino-Indochinese relations, and which contribution the Vietnamese and Laotian delegations made to the forum’s meetings. It investigates how the various shifts in Sino-Soviet and Soviet-US relations enhanced or reduced Vietnam’s relative importance in Soviet strategy. It describes how the Kremlin sought to dissuade its East European s…
The USSR, Asia, and the End of the Cold War
Sergey Radchenko, Unwanted Visionaries: The Soviet Failure in Asia at the End of the Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 383 pp.Editor's Note: The academic literature on the end of the Cold War has focused predominantly on the Cold War in Europe. Few studies have appeared of Soviet policy toward Asia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sergey Radchenko's book Unwanted Visionaries partly redresses this imbalance by offering a detaile…
The “Sole Legal Government of Vietnam”
Earlier historical studies often suggested that the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin, distrustful as he was of Ho Chi Minh's policies and attributing little importance to Vietnam, remained unwilling to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam until the Chinese Communist leaders threw their weight behind their Vietnamese comrades. On the basis of Soviet press articles, Hungarian archival documents, United Nations (UN) records, and other sources, thi…
Intensification of Ex Situ Bioremediation of Soils Polluted with Used Lubricant Oils
Used lubricant oils (ULOs) strongly bind to soil particles and cause persistent pollution. In this study, soil microcosm experiments were conducted to model the ex situ bioremediation of a long term ULO-polluted area. Biostimulation and various inoculation levels of bioaugmentation were applied to determine the efficacy of total petrol hydrocarbon (TPH) removal. ULO-contaminated soil microcosms were monitored for microbial respiration, colony-for…
Take-Off in an Inhospitable Climate
The article examines the role of infrastructure, governance, and political stability in the development of export-oriented manufacturing ( EOM ) in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, comparing their experiences with Africa’s slower industrial growth. These factors occupy a prominent place in transaction cost economics, and the World Bank’s development programs strongly stressed infrastructure building and good governance. The artic…
Maneuvering between Baghdad and Tehran
This article explores how North Korean leaders tried to maneuver between Iran and Iraq to gain greater leverage in the Cold War. Both of these Middle Eastern countries seemed potentially attractive partners for Pyongyang, but they were often on hostile terms with each other. The article considers how the Iraq-Iran rivalry and domestic changes in Iraq and Iran affected North Korean policy. Even when Pyongyang's cooperation with one or the other of…
North Korea Discovers the Maghreb
The paper examines the formative phase of Pyongyang’s diplomacy toward Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania through the lenses of North Korean propaganda. It points out that the DPRK leaders' initial views of this distant and little-known region were heavily shaped by the information transmitted by their Soviet bloc allies, and they showed less interest in the Maghreb than East Germany and North Vietnam. When they did develop a more distinct…
Hungary, the USSR, and the Cold War
Csaba Békés, Hungary's Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War II to the Fall of the Soviet Union. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022. 400 pp. $39.95.Thanks to the Hungarian Archives Act of 1995, which made pre-1990 records accessible to the public, scholars interested in the diplomatic history of the Hungarian Communist regime have rarely been hindered by the so-called 30-year rule.1 Nor have they encounter…
Political science (14 works) · Law (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · China (8 works) · Law (8 works) · History (7 works) · Development economics (6 works) · History (6 works) · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies (6 works)