Századvég was established in 1993 as an intellectual workshop of the young generation that played an active role in the political changes of 1989-1990 in Hungary. The founders’ aim was to create an intellectual and professional base to provide reliable support for Hungarian opinion leaders in a period of social and economic transition.
In the 30 years since then, the world around us has not become less controversial, but it has accelerated considerably, flooding us with an almost unimaginable amount of possibilities and impulses. As complication has increased, so has problem complexity, while we have to form opinions on more and more abstract and relatively distant issues.
Századvég’s mission is to help you see clearly so that you can make better decisions. And good decisions require two things: clear objectives and substantial information.
We work to learn and understand Hungarian and international economic and social processes, and thus provide useful and understandable knowledge to decision-makers, whether they are corporate, governmental or private.
Kinga Kenyeres
Chief Executive Officer
In Syria, the past few weeks have seen the new Sunni Arab government’s forces capture most of the territory previously controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north and northeast of the country. In response to military operations against Syrian Kurds, Syrian Arabs and Kurds clashed on European streets in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom in mid-January. These clashes were the first that clearly erupted because of the new balance of power in Syria and disrupted public order in Europe. Until recently, the radical manifesto of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) mobilised Kurds in Europe, but now the latest military operation in Syria is stirring up emotions. This study describes the background to these clashes, their impact on European migration dynamics, and the risks and challenges they pose to integration.
With social unrest intensifying in Iran and a second war between Israel and Iran becoming increasingly likely, Iran and the Shia-Sunni power struggle in the Middle East have once again become the focus of attention in regional and global politics. The first Iran-Israel war (13-24 June 2025) weakened the Iranian regime but did not threaten its survival, especially its arsenal of ballistic missiles. Iran's second strategic asset, beyond missiles, is the Shia militias in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, which also survived the 2025 attacks and can continue to play a role in the region’s power struggles. First, we need to understand the divide between Sunnis and Shias, its background and current role in Middle Eastern geopolitics, and how it influences the current power struggles between Shias and Sunnis in the Middle East. In light of this, we will then discuss Iran’s ambitions and who is threatened by Iran's expansion. Lastly, we will examine the possibilities for regime change in Iran. The United States and Israel are not the only countries that support regime change in Iran; countries such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the Sunni Arab states (the Gulf states, Jordan, and Syria) would also benefit from it. For the United States, a war against Iran or a regime change, if it were to occur, would make the US the only significant player in the region, thereby minimising the influence of the Russian-Chinese axis on oil and Middle East politics.
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In a unique way, Project 28 conducted the widest possible survey of 1,000, that is a total of 28,000 randomly selected adults in each country. Gaining an understanding of society’s sense of prosperity and mapping the population’s attitudes towards the performance of the European Union, the migration crisis and the increasing terrorism were among the most important goals of the analysis. Following the surveys in 2017, 2018 and 2019, on behalf of the government, the Századvég Foundation has been conducting the research under the name of Project Europe since 2020, which continued to reflect on the topics that most dominated the European political and social discourse.
PROJECT EUROPE
