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Munich, one of Germany’s largest cities located deep in the country’s southern Bavaria state, is hosting this week the world’s largest working gathering of presidents, senior ministers, diplomats, defense and intelligence officials.
The Munich Security Conference (MSC) is now in its 60th edition and will be held from Friday to Sunday. Most of the officials who will give speeches, speak on panels, attend the Bilat conference (and occasionally speak to journalists) will do so in and around the Bavaria Hof, a neo-Renaissance building for the event blocked.
But these officials are also increasingly showing up at another event near the main MSC. The invitation-only Munich Cyber Security Conference (MCSC) opened on Thursday and concluded with welcome remarks.
Holding separate meetings in the shadow of major international events does not seem to affect the importance of the MCSC dialogue. There’s a lot to discuss, including not only the differences between two world powers, the United States and China – both of which will have high-level representatives in the city – but also differences among allies and even within the cybersecurity field itself Divided Policymakers and governments are divided in the area of cybersecurity. Operators often find themselves having parallel conversations with each other. MCSC sees value in creating a forum to address these issues.
Who is attending the Munich Cybersecurity Conference?
- Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Newberg
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas
- FBI Director Chris Wray
- U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco
- British Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins
- Claudia Plattner, President of the German Internet Security Institute (BSI)
- Vincent Strubel, Director General of the French Internet Security Agency (ANSSI)
- Pekka Jokinen, Director of the Finnish Cyber Security Agency (NCSC-FI)
- NATO Chief Information Officer Manfred Boudreau-Dermer
What are they discussing?
- Does the West need to rethink its cyber resilience strategy?
- How should countries respond to the threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence?
- Are enough steps being taken to prevent election interference this year?
Who attends the Munich Security Conference?
While the list of participants has not yet been made public, Recorded Future News estimates:
- President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (subject to availability)
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
- U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris
- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron
- French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné
- Dozens of other foreign and defense ministers from around the world, as well as most heads of intelligence agencies (or their deputies)
What are they discussing?
- How can the international community avoid the trap of strategic competition?
- What is the appropriate global response to multiple regional conflicts?
- And, as the conference’s own conversation starter report points out: “How to avoid a vicious cycle that leads to a world filled with zero-sum thinking where everyone loses?”
The Munich Security Conference is large-scale and has the support of the German government and sponsorship from a large number of companies. It aimed to be as big and important as possible – and some of the most important conversations that took place during this period (particularly between various defense organizations and intelligence agencies) were not on the public agenda or even rarely made it into the public radar.
In contrast, Munich’s cybersecurity conference is organized by the Munich Safety Network, a non-profit association established locally about 12 years ago to promote cybersecurity. Its managing director Peter Möhring told Record Future News that it was conceived as a complementary event to the Political Security Conference, although it also facilitated fair quiet sessions.
When the cybersecurity conference first began, Wolfgang Ischinger, the former German ambassador to the United States and then chairman of the Munich Security Conference, was happy to provide some sponsorship for this additional event.
Both conferences have their own characteristics. This cybersecurity event may lack global representation, with the vast majority of attendees coming from North America and Europe. But unlike political meetings, smaller meetings have grown largely through word of mouth and, as Morin explains, are more about creating a forum than driving an agenda.
“That’s why we provide all the extra space for discussions, meetings and meetings,” he said. “That’s why we don’t want it to grow too much.”
The problem with growing too much is that “after a certain amount, it becomes too anonymous and you lose that special balance of meeting the same people again, continuing the discussion, and having some people personally introduce you to others.” people, that creates a special team that can do this together,” Morin said.
Invitations to MCSC are primarily made to individuals recommended by those within the circle. The aim, he said, is “to create a space of trust, dialogue and understanding so that those who know about the subject can hear the voices of those who need to know about it”.
Morin said it was crucial to be selective about attendees: “We select who comes to the forum because the attendees are actually as important as the attendees on the stage, and that could be part of the package.”
This is not to say that the entire MCSC is public – government officials and private sector entities hold closed briefings, while public meetings are also recorded and eventually uploaded online.
As a conference rather than a diplomatic summit, participants went home on Sunday without a communiqué – although it was hoped some shared understanding would help inform those attending other events. But they also provide diplomatic opportunities for allies to air their grievances and concerns.
At the larger Munich Security Conference, attendees got a rough idea of the topics that would be discussed. For the past decade, conference organizers have released a kickoff report that sets the tone and agenda for the future. This year’s report is titled “Lose-lose?” and warns that “dynamics will arise if more and more governments prioritize relative gains over positive-sum cooperation and investment in the international order.”
While it explicitly mentions challenges in technology supply chains and regional conflicts, the Munich Security Conference has implicitly been primarily about transatlantic cooperation, and perhaps indicative of the fact that the report’s authors mention Donald Trump six times alleviated their concerns. Mentioned more times than German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The likely Republican candidates in this year’s U.S. election are in some ways the epitome of a zero-sum mentality. He has expressed revulsion at the investments in the international order described in the report and has recently stirred controversy by suggesting that his administration would not protect NATO allies, provocatively saying that he would even encourage Russia to attack anyone who failed to meet its spending obligations. allies. At least 2% of GDP is spent on defence.
U.S. support for Ukraine is likely to be on everyone’s agenda, with the aid package – which also extends to Israel and Taiwan – making slow progress on Capitol Hill amid political wrangling. The lack of defense spending by some NATO allies will offset Russia’s military investments and focus on defense industrial production.
The risk of a global conflict in the Indo-Pacific region, especially the risk of China launching a military invasion of Taiwan, has become increasingly prominent. Of primary concern to many attendees was the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both in terms of the security and humanitarian implications of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Without a communiqué or concluding statement, the value of the Munich Dialogue may be difficult to assess. No participant could leave the event setting a new direction for their country, but just because the impact cannot be measured, that doesn’t mean the conversation itself is worthless.
Morin credits observations made to him repeatedly over the years about what they call the “Munich spirit.””There is something that exists and creates an atmosphere of participation,” he said. [in the city for this week in February]. There is a positive vibration that allows this to move and roll. “
“The people there own it, they can shape it,” he added.
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