János Besenyő

Professor Dr. János Besenyő is a professor in the Óbuda University, Donát Bánki Faculty of Mechanical and Safety Engineering (Hungary) and head of the Africa Research Institute. He is also visiting professor of the Centre for Military Studies (CEMIS) in Stellenbosch University. Between 1987 and 2018, he served as a professional soldier and served in several peace operations in Africa and Afghanistan. He received a PhD in military science from Zrínyi Miklós National Defense University (Hungary) and he received a habilitated doctorate at Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary). In 2014, he established the Scientific Research Centre of the Hungarian Defence Forces General Staff, and was its first leader from 2014 to 2018. His research interests include contemporary and recent history of Africa, migration, peacekeeping, military logistics, Hungarian peacekeeping operations in Africa, with particular reference to Western Sahara, and in addition, comparing political cultures, political communication and intercultural communication, DDR programs in Africa, terrorism, and Christian-Muslim relationship on the continent. He has published on these topics, several books and articles.

Keywords: Western Sahara, Africa, peacekeeping missions, African conflicts, border issues, migration, terrorism.

Recent publications:

Besenyő, J., Khanyile, M.B., Vogel, D. (eds) (2024). Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Modern Sub-Saharan Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 

Besenyő, J., Huddleston, J. & Y. H. Zoubir (eds). (2023): Conflict and Peace in Western Sahara: The Role of the UN's Peacekeeping Mission (MINURSO), Routledge, CRC Press. 2023. 368 p. ISBN: 9781032257624

2023. MINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara: Peace Operation Stalled in the Desert, 1991-2021, Warwick, Egyesült Királyság, Helion & Company. ISBN: 9781804512067

2021. Darfur Peacekeepers - The African Union peacekeeping mission in darfur (AMIS) from the perspective of a Hungarian military advisor, Paris, L'Harmattan, ISBN: 9782343236964

2020. Magyarország és a nyugat-szaharai válság (Hungary and the Western Sahara conflict), Budapest, Monarchia Kiadó. ISBN: 978-615-80864-1-7