On today’s episode of Justice Matters co-host Mathias Risse speaks with John Shattuck about the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard University and the parallels to Victor Orban’s attacks on the Central European University (CEU) in Hungary.

Shattuck is an international legal scholar, diplomat, human rights leader and former university president. From 1984-1993 he held the position at Harvard University of Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs, responsible for Harvard’s relations with government agencies, private institutions and the media. He then served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under President Clinton from 1993-1998, and was later appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1998-2000. In 2009 became the President and Rector of CEU in Budapest, a position he held until 2016.

On today’s episode they discuss: the history of CEU and it’s ties to George Soros, the circumstances under which he became President and Rector of CEU, the roots of Victor Orban’s authoritarianism and attack on CEU, similarities and differences between the Orban and Trump administrations clashes with universities, the ideological straitjacket imposed on universities by authoritarians , CEU’s current situation Austria and what remains in Budapest, and his assessment of what effect Trump’s will take on academia in the US.