Réka Szemerkényi

Ambassador of Hungary to the United States

Dr. Réka Szemerkényi was nominated Chief Advisor to Prime Minister of Hungary in 2011. She covers security policy, energy security and cyber security issues. Between 2006 and 2011, she was Chief International Public Relations Advisor to Chairman of the Board of MOL Group, the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company. Réka Szemerkényi held various governmental posts: between 1998 and 2002, she was State Secretary for Foreign Policy and National Security Advisor to Prime Minister of Hungary, from 1991 to 1994, she was Senior Advisor to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense of Hungary.

In her academic and research work, she was university lecturer at Pázmány and Károli Universities in Budapest, as well as at the ASERI Centre of International Relations, Catholic University of Milan, Italy. She is author of several publications in international relations, security policy and energy security. In 1995-6, she was research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London.

Réka Szemerkényi made her Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies as Fulbright Fellow at SAIS, the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. (1993-5). She earned her Doctoral Degree at Péter Pázmány Catholic University of Budapest in 2006, her Ph.D. thesis being Energy Security - West European and Warsaw Pact Energy Strategies between 1945-1990.