United States Relations with Hungary
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Hungary is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU). Hungary works with the United States to achieve shared international objectives, particularly in the security, law enforcement, economic, and energy areas. The United States engages with Hungary to reduce the threats posed by terrorism and nuclear proliferation and to strengthen shared transatlantic values such as promoting human rights and the rule of law. Our two countries are bound together through myriad people-to-people contacts in business, the arts, academia, and other spheres. Hungary is an ally in coalition operations, including NATO missions in Afghanistan and the Balkans.
The United States established diplomatic relations with Hungary in 1921 following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the end of World War I. Hungary severed relations with the United States in 1941 and allied with Nazi Germany during World War II; the United States and Hungary reestablished relations following the end of the War in 1945. At the end of the War, Soviet forces entered the country and over the course of several years installed a communist regime that remained in place for over four decades, despite an uprising that the Soviet Union violently crushed in 1956. After the collapse of communism in 1989, the United States offered assistance and expertise to enable Hungary to establish a democratic political system and a free-market economy. Hungary acceded to NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004. Today, the United States and Hungary cooperate on a broad range of transatlantic and other issues.
About John E. Parkerson, Jr.,
John Parkerson serves as Honorary Consul General and Foreign Economic Counselor of Hungary. He focuses primarily on cultivating business, educational and cultural ties between Hungary, on the one hand; and companies, institutions and individuals in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.
Parkerson also is an attorney in the international practice group at Hall Booth Smith, P.C.; and he is Adjunct Professor at Emory Law School and the Scheller College of Business at GA Tech. His law practice focuses on international business and related commercial transactions; international compliance; export/import; international aviation; sustainable airport area development; and governmental affairs. Parkerson was an international attorney in Delta Air Lines’ Law Department from 1993-2008. Before Delta, he served as Judge Advocate General (“JAG”) Army officer in a variety of international law assignments.
He holds leadership roles in numerous civic and charitable organizations, including past President and current Board Member of the World Trade Center Atlanta, and current Secretary of the Atlanta Consular Corps Board. Parkerson also holds Board positions on the Georgia Council for International Visitors, Atlanta Council for International Relations, Arts Clayton, and the Tropics Foundation.
Parkerson holds B.A. (European History), M.A. (Diplomatic History) and JD (Law) degrees from Emory University; an M.A. (International Relations) from Boston University; and an LL.M (International and Comparative Law) from the George Washington University.
