National Security Review

Action on Disinformation in NATO Strategic Communications

Torda Péter — 2025-05-08

After Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014, countering hybrid warfare, including the response to Russia’s hostile information and disinformation operations, has become the main driver of NATO’s strategic communications capability development. NATO’ engagement to counter disinformation is put into effect through defensive and offensive communication activities as well as through cooperation with partners. In defending the populations of allied nations against disinformation, national-level measures take priority, and NATO’s information and communication activities play only a secondary role. However, transposing and adapting NATO’s strategic communications principles and practices at national level would allow for the establishment of a framework for a national military strategic communications capability, including an anti-disinformation capability. This opportunity is available to the Hungarian Defence Forces, and it is rendered particularly important by the fact that Hungary’s National Security Strategy and National Military Strategy both envisage the development of national strategic communications capabilities.

National Security vs. Procedural Guarantees

Csatlós Erzsébet — 2025-05-08

Due to the nature of their activities, secret services handle classified data, the availability of which is limited in the interest of national security. At the same time, there is a collaborative decision-making relationship between immigration authorities and secret services. This relationship affects the merits of cases, and for individuals, the right to a reasoned official decision is violated if they do not have access to the documents on which the decision is based. Consequently, the ability to exercise legal remedies to which individuals are entitled diminishes in direct proportion to the difficulty of accessing classified information, often becoming irreversibly compromised.

Two core values are in tension with each other: national security and the procedural guarantee system. The question is which one can prevail over the other and to what extent. Recently, Hungarian jurisprudence received sharp criticism in this regard. The European Court of Justice, in the GM case, stated that procedures must take national security into account but emphasized the right to an effective remedy and the obligation to provide reasons.

When it comes to viewing documents containing classified data, the system of legal redress against decisions involves a set of complicated, independent, and often unrelated procedures. The final outcome is that the facts on which the procedure is based – which are particularly difficult to ascertain – cannot be effectively challenged.

Somewhere Far South… Special State Interest

Prantner Zoltán — 2025-05-08

East Germany has paid special attention to the state of South Yemen, which became independent in 1967, and in whose development it has played an active role from the very beginning. The East German Ministry of State Security played a central role in this extensive assistance, sending teams of advisors/experts and stationing them in Aden to support the development of the security apparatus in South Yemen and subsequently to improve its operational efficiency. The aim of this paper is to describe this process from the beginning until 1990, when each of the two divided countries merged into its sister state and ceased to exist, just over five months apart. The author will discuss the political background to the cooperation between the two states, the role of the Stasi in the creation of the state security apparatus in South Yemen, the various aspects of cooperation between the two partner organisations, particularly their role in supporting terrorism, and an assessment of the impact of the events in Yemen in 1986 on state security cooperation.

Computerized Character Recognition Applicable in Security Technology Using Various Artificial Intelligence Methodologies

Zsenák-Simon Orsolya — 2025-05-08

Several articles have been written on how an algorithm can recognize shapes placed within an image format. In our study, we utilized the algorithm of Hopfield neural networks and compared the results with a procedure based on Fuzzy logic. While these algorithms are individually suitable for character recognition, intriguing findings emerge when we compare the outcomes obtained by each algorithm.

Understanding the capabilities of available artificial intelligence methodologies is crucial from various aspects of national security. Machine character recognition intersects with both public administration and public safety, hence it's important to comprehend which programming technologies can efficiently perform this task. Nevertheless, the comparison presented in this study is just one of many that should be conducted within the field of artificial intelligence.

Institutional Characteristics of Hungary’s National Security System in International Comparison

Márton Balázs — 2025-05-08

There are currently five national security services operating in Hungary, furthermore some public bodies authorized to collect secret information. Over the past three decades, there have been several minor or major transformations in Hungary’s national security system, but none of these can be considered as reforms. The security situation in the region has considerably changed during this period. New types of complex and global security challenges have emerged. The aim of this study is to present the institutional aspects of the national security system of some states with security policies similar to Hungary. International examples provide a basis for theoretical discussions about the national security services in Hungary.

The Operation and Training of Large Language Models and a Strategic Analysis of Their Application Part I.

Bottyán Sándor — 2025-05-08

Nowadays, an increasing number of work environment software solutions are emerging that are supported by artificial intelligence agents, where the main capabilities are provided by large language models. The observed development directions of these models (e.g., reducing resource consumption, compact architectures) suggest a future in which this technology will likely become part of our everyday toolkit in information processing, including national security tasks. Effective and responsible use requires understanding the fundamental principles and development needs of this technology, as well as uncovering both its positive and negative features in real word application. In the first part of this two-part study aimed at knowledge dissemination, we focus on transformers and their most essential technological fundamentals in the broader fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, in order to demystify this phenomenon – often regarded as obscure and difficult to understand – and bring it closer to societal acceptance.