Hungary’s opening up to the world did not start with the disintegration of the Eastern bloc, rather, it had begun as early as the 1960s. By considering the example of Algerian-Hungarian relationships, the present study investigates Hungary’s participation in globalization from the 1960s to the 1980s. Hungarian-Algerian relations reveal an increasing number and rate of contacts from the 1960s. What common or differing motivations and standpoints led the Hungarian partici-pants (decision makers, companies, individual experts) to build these relationships during their activities linked to Algeria? To what extent was this a form of anti-colonial solidarity or, at least, cooperation against “the West,” and to what extent was it merely a matter of business? In what ways and frameworks did the Hungarian experts working in Algeria in the intersecting spaces of different cultures interpret their own experiences? The study constats, that from the mid-1960s to appro¬ximately the mid-1980s, Hungarian “intellectual export” was bene¬ficial for both parties. The basis of cooperation was not opposition to the globalization of West-centered capitalism but rather a common notion of modernization, the top-down led projects of which received an export of experts from Hungary.

Keywords: Hungary in the globalization, Eastern block, modernization, expertise, 1960s-1980s

This publication has been financially supported by the MTA–SZTE–ELTE History of
Globalization Research Group (project number: 0322107).