Visegrad Insight Podcast

Europe is becoming a central battleground in the global contest over economic security. As the US and China de-risk from one another, the EU is under growing pressure to defend its market, reduce strategic dependencies and decide how far it is willing to go in confronting Beijing.

In this episode, Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Camille Boullenois, Associate Director at Rhodium Group, who argues that Europe is far from powerless. Its market size and control over key high-tech inputs give it substantial leverage, but that leverage will matter only if European governments are prepared to use it.

How far should Europe go in de-risking from China? And is Europe ready to bear the political and economic costs of a more assertive strategy? Listen to the episode.

(00:00) Introduction

(02:00) Trump, Xi and the US–China relationship

(05:55) Economic warfare and Europe’s role

(08:35) Why Europe matters for global de-risking

(12:50) China’s real GDP, slowing economy and rising exports

(14:20) Did the SOTEU deliver on Europe’s China strategy?

(17:22) How can Europe protect its industries from China?

(19:00) Can economic tools change countries’ behaviour?

(20:20) Where should Europe start using its economic toolbox?

(23:03) Does Europe have the political will?

(24:28) What to expect from Šefčovič’s visit to Beijing

(28:23) Germany’s position on China

Europe’s borders may be thousands of kilometres apart, but the challenges they face are increasingly connected.

In this episode, Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Marc Lopez Plana, editor and director of Agenda Pública, about the recent migration crisis involving Spain and Morocco, the role of social media and disinformation in amplifying political tensions, and the parallels with migration pressures experienced by Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on their borders with Belarus.

López argues that the crisis has pushed migration to the centre of Spain’s political debate ahead of the 2027 elections, while forcing the country to reconsider the strategic importance of Ceuta and Melilla and its relationship with Morocco.

What can Europe learn from crises at its borders? How can governments respond without fuelling divisions within their own societies? Listen to the episode.

00:00 Introduction 01:34 Parallels between Spain and Eastern Flank's borders02:52 What happened on the Spain–Morocco border? 07:35 Comparing Spain–Morocco and Poland–Belarus 11:25 Social media, disinformation and political polarisation 17:22 Who benefits from division in Europe? 21:00 Migration and Europe’s 2027 elections 24:49 How could Europe defend its borders?

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Europe’s security order is evolving, but is the Old Continent still able to build the capabilities, resilience and political confidence needed to defend it?

Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Florence Gaub, Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defence College, about Europe’s changing security environment, the limits of old assumptions and the need for strategic foresight.

Gaub, who leads research on future challenges relevant to NATO, argues that Europe does not need a new security architecture. NATO and the EU already provide one, but Europeans must now take far greater responsibility for their own defence, particularly as the US focuses increasingly on China and the Indo-Pacific.

Can Europe close its capability gaps in time? And what will it take for Europeans to move from dependence to genuine strategic responsibility? Listen to the episode.

00:00 Introduction01:24 Europe’s new security architecture05:03 Does Europe have enough time to defend itself?09:06 “Democracies are stronger when they are defending themselves”13:49 Burden sharing and securing Europe’s frontier states16:12 Strategic communication, democratic strength and deterrence22:50 Nuclear deterrence: France and the UK’s role in European security

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Europe is no longer only shaping its neighbourhood. It is also an arena where Turkey, China and Russia pursue competing strategies to influence the continent.

In this episode, Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Dimitar Bechev, Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe, about his new book 'The Scramble for Europe: Russia, China, and Turkey Challenging Regional Order'.

Bechev argues that Russia, China and Turkey should not be treated as a coherent anti-European bloc, as each pursues a distinct strategy. Russia seeks to revise the European order, China aims to deepen Europe’s economic dependence and Turkey seeks a more advantageous place in Europe’s political architecture.

How should Europe respond? Can it retain agency in an increasingly geopolitical era? Listen to the episode.

00:00 Introduction02:02 What is Europe’s regional order?05:47 CEE’s experience of power politics11:10 Three strategies for Europe: Russia, China and Turkey19:18 Europe's old (new) strategy of muddling through?25:33 What should Europe do?

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Péter Magyar’s first 100 days in office have already brought a wave of institutional change and reforms aimed at breaking with Orbán’s system in Hungary. The new government is still enjoying strong public backing, prolonging Magyar’s honeymoon so far. But how long can it last?

Wojciech Przybylski returns to speak with Péter Krekó about Hungary’s transition after TISZA took power. Krekó assesses Magyar’s first 100 days in office, the government’s push to reshape the rule of law and democratic institutions in Hungary.

00:00 Introduction01:03 Péter Magyar’s political honeymoon05:50 Hungary: from ‘spin dictatorship’ to ‘spin democracy’?07:55 Magyar’s achievements checklist12:15 How perfect is TISZA’s 'realistic' approach?21:50 How deep is Hungary’s ongoing change?26:42 Balancing speed, efficiency and democracy29:55 Transitional justice and Hungary’s communist past39:22 The start of Poland’s campaign

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In just three years, Ukraine scaled its annual defence production from roughly one billion euros to 50 billion euros. The EU Commissioner for Defence and Space argues that a combination of digital talent, demand-side doctrinal change and civil society mobilisation drove that transformation, and that the EU has not yet matched this model and therefore needs to bring Ukraine into its defence thinking.
 
At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk on 26 June 2026, Visegrad Insight editor-in-chief Wojciech Przybylski sat down with European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius for a wide-ranging conversation on what Europe can – and must – learn from Ukraine's military-industrial transformation.

0:00 Introduction: recording live from Gdańsk, Ukraine Recovery Conference 20260:59 Is Europe living through a moment that fundamentally changes the European project?1:34 Why the shift away from US dependency is now unavoidable4:18 Ukraine's drone revolution: digital talent, demand-side doctrine and Mykhailo Fedorov7:54 SAFE instrument: catching up or innovating?9:13 Eastern flank countries and the shared burden of continental defence12:21 Defence as a European public good: Eastern Flank Watch and the path to EDPCI status13:24 Are Europe's strategies speaking to each other? 14:26 Article 42.7 and the whole-society approach16:51 Cutting military construction permits from 4 years to 100 days

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The conversation covers Péter Magyar's outreach to Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava, the proposed V4 plus Austria configuration and Magyar's wider ambition of adding four more partners, with Romania, Slovenia and Croatia named as candidates.

Przybylski and Krekó weigh the strategic realignment between Poland and Hungary on Russia and Ukraine, the limits of that convergence over enlargement and fast-tracking, as well as the lingering memory politics dispute between Warsaw and Budapest.

Check the podcast on alternative platforms: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Substack

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Hungary has dropped its two-year veto on Ukraine's European Union accession, clearing the way for the first cluster of negotiations to open in mid-June.
Recorded on 6 June 2026 in Cres, Croatia, on the sidelines of the Europe's Future Initiative fellows gathering, Wojciech Przybylski talks to Balázs Jarábik about the deal that ended the deadlock between Hungary and Ukraine. Jarábik is an award-winning analyst and decorated diplomat. He is the founder of Minority Report, an independent policy consulting firm and think tank based in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The conversation then opens out into three tracks. First, the question of the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia and why it carries such weight in Hungary's foreign policy. Second, the European game of the new Magyar government. Third, and most consequential, the emergence of a more ethno-national, post-Maidan Ukraine that, in Jarábik's reading, will lead with defence integration while EU accession slows, and will use its military weight towards its neighbours.

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Drone incursions over the Baltic states have caused their first major political casualty: the collapse of Latvia's government following the resignation of Defence Minister Andris Sprūds. But is the political fallout proportionate to the actual threat? And what do Baltic societies make of it all?

Wojciech Przybylski speaks with Dmitri Teperik, Resilient Futures Fellow at Visegrad Insight, joining from Narva on the Russian border. They discuss the political immaturity driving overreactions, the gap in intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, Russian disinformation framing the attacks as Baltic-originated, and the 18-month window before the Baltic Drone Wall becomes operational in early 2028.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9qoaeRr2Ywg

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What did Donald Trump actually achieve in Beijing, and what does it signal for Taiwan and the security of Central Europe?

Wojciech Przybylski, Editor-in-Chief of Visegrad Insight, is joined by Marcin Jerzewski, Visegrad Insight Fellow and Head of the European Values Center for Security Policy think tank in Taipei, to unpack the outcomes of the Trump-Xi summit of 17–18 May 2026.

They examine China's use of discourse power to shape the narrative around Taiwan, the strategic ambiguity now surrounding US arms sales, diverging EU member state approaches to China, and the concrete ways Central Europe and Taiwan can deepen cooperation, from drone supply chains to non-red technology partnerships.

This episode draws on an ongoing Visegrad Insight report on Central European perspectives on Taiwan scenarios through the lens of economic security. Watch this space.

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Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1kYQnreH1lD9eDEOFJrfUp?si=vY7E0d5-S7Kjdb_tFOOIDA

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Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xRntS_U6KkE