Between Embassy Protocol and State Security: Egyptian Diplomats in Budapest through Hungarian Archival Files (1958–1960)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12700/jceeas.2026.6.2.459Keywords:
Egypt; Hungary; Cold War; Diplomacy; Intelligence HistoryAbstract
This article translates and analyses Hungarian state security records concerning two Egyptian diplomats posted in Budapest during the late 1950s and early 1960s: Osman Fawzi and Hassan Maher. The documents preserve the daily mechanics of Cold War contact, including protocol visits, private meetings, requests for legislation, and commentary on third states, while reframing such interactions as objects of risk assessment and operational opportunity. Rather than treating the archive as a transparent window, the study reads it as institutional writing that produces judgments and prescribes tactics, enabling a reconstruction of how ambiguity was managed rather than eliminated. By following the sequence of meetings and requests recorded in the files, the article shows how Egyptian–Hungarian relations could be advanced or obstructed through individual personality, internal discipline in Cairo, and the host state’s calibrated approach to sustained contact. At the same time, we must emphasize that all the characters of these episodes remained loyal to one’s native country, no defection occurred.
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