Some events and distinct formats have transformed, evolved and/or changed names and purposes in the course of time.
Security Innovation Board In 2021, the MSC Security Innovation Board was launched, bringing together a group of experts from the technology and defense policy sectors to promote exchange on innovation in the security policy field.
Zeitenwende on tour A discussion format for the exchange of views on security policy between citizens and representatives from politics, academia, and society, supplemented by the
Zeitenwende podcast.
Core Group Meetings After the launch in 2009, the subsequent events took place in
Moscow in 2010,
Beijing in 2011, as well as
Doha in 2013. A second meeting was held for the first time in 2013 in Washington, DC. The location of the 2014 Core Group Meeting was
New Delhi. The issues discussed in New Delhi were the threats of terrorism and cyber-attacks, questions of maritime security, regional and global security structures and concepts for new
global governance. The Core Group Meeting 2015 was held in
Vienna. The
Russo-Ukrainian war was a central theme of the meeting, which featured the Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Pavlo Klimkin and the Russian deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov. Klimkin urged the European states to confront the Russian government head-on. The Austrian Foreign Minister
Sebastian Kurz stated that any border changes in Europe were "unacceptable", but at the same time stressed the need for cooperation with Russia. While the Swiss Foreign Minister
Didier Burkhalter proposed a neutral status for Ukraine, the Serbian Foreign Minister
Ivica Dačić as
OSCE chairman called for a strengthening of his organization in order to prevent future conflicts. Another Core Group Meeting took place in
Tehran in October 2015. Key topics of the meeting were the implementation of the
Vienna Agreement concerning the
Iranian nuclear program and the political situation in the region. German Foreign Minister Steinmeier, who opened the conference together with the
Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, emphasized the importance of transparency and trust for the successful implementation of the Vienna agreement: "After the game is before the game". In April 2016, another MSC Core Group Meeting took place in the
Ethiopian capital
Addis Ababa. The security situation in Africa, the fight against international terrorism, and the challenges posed by climate change and
epidemics were central themes of the meeting. The Ethiopian Foreign Minister
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the mutual global interdependencies in all of these issues. Other participants included Ethiopian Prime Minister
Hailemariam Desalegn, former
Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo,
Smaїl Chergui,
African Union Commissioner, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former German President
Horst Köhler. Another Core Group Meeting was held in
Beijing in November 2016. Key topics of the meeting were China's role in the international order, conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region and the geopolitical importance of the "
New Silk Road". Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister,
Zhang Yesui, stressed in his opening speech the importance of dialogue and cooperation for the security of the region. During the core group meeting,
Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, reaffirmed his country's willingness to contribute to peace and security globally. Other participants included
Fu Ying, chairwoman of the
National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Committee,
Louise Mushikiwabo,
Rwandan
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Markus Ederer, secretary of state at the
German Foreign Office,
Tom Enders, CEO of
Airbus Group, and several members of the
Bundestag.
Cyber Security Summit In 2012, the first Cyber Security Summit was held in cooperation with
Deutsche Telekom in
Bonn. The first event was conducted under
Chatham House Rule. According to media reports, the supervisory board chairman of Deutsche Bank,
Paul Achleitner, the head of the construction group
Bilfinger Berger,
Roland Koch, as well as Peter Terium, the CEO of the energy supplier
RWE and
Johannes Teyssen of
E.ON were in attendance. During the summit several working groups analyzed existing cyber risks and dangers for energy, finances, health, logistics, media, and production. On 11 November 2013 the second summit took place in Bonn. The gathering had the following four topics: • Rebuilding trust in the digital society • New threat scenarios for the economy • Gaining trust, restoring trust • Cyber defense is becoming a business-critical core skill. Unlike in 2012, the list of speakers was published: •
Neelie Kroes, vice-president (Digital Company) of the
European Commission •
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, German Federal Minister of Justice •
Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Interior Minister of Austria • Ambassador
Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference Foundation gGmbH; executive vice president for Government Relations at
Allianz •
Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel •
Jürgen Stock, vice-president of the German Federal Criminal Police • Scott Charney, vice president of
Microsoft • Arthur W. Coviello Jr., CEO of
RSA Security • Thomas Rid, lecturer at
King's College London; author on issues of cyber security •
René Obermann, CEO of
Deutsche Telekom; vice president of BITKOM e.V. •
Timotheus Höttges, chief financial and controlling officer of Deutsche Telekom AG; designated CEO • Thomas Kremer, director of Privacy, Legal Affairs and Compliance at Deutsche Telekom AG • Klaus Schweinsberg, former editor of the business magazines
Capital and
Impulse; founder and director of the Center for Strategy and senior management The third summit was held on 3 November 2014. It was attended by 180 representatives from the fields of politics, economy, EU and NATO. In his opening speech, Telekom CEO Höttges highlighted the growing number of attacks on data and digital infrastructures, where the Telekom network recorded 1 Million attacks daily. He quoted a
CSIS study that estimated the global damage caused by cybercrime to be US$575 billion per year. To protect European data against access by US authorities, Höttges called for a revision of the
Safe Harbor Agreement. The intelligence coordinator of the federal government,
Klaus-Dieter Fritsche, supported Höttges demands. MSC Chairman Ischinger described the great geopolitical importance of cyber security as a result of the
Russo-Ukrainian war, which had marked the return of war as political means in Europe. State Secretary
Brigitte Zypries stated the planned IT Security Act in which the reporting of cyber attacks on companies from sensitive sectors was an obligation as the contribution by the German Federal Government to increase data security.
Ben Wizner, representative of the
American Civil Liberties Union and lawyer of
Edward Snowden, In separate working groups, the topics of Digital Defense, Cyber governance, Promotion of Innovation in regards to data security and preventive data protection were also discussed. The fourth Cyber Security Summit was held on 19 and 20 September 2016
Palo Alto,
Silicon Valley. The summit was jointly convened by MSC,
Deutsche Telekom and
Stanford University. 140 representatives from the fields of politics, security and business participated in the gathering. A central theme of the meeting was the
2016 U.S. presidential election and its possible manipulation by cyber attacks. The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, expressed his fear that such attacks could damage confidence in democratic elections in general. MSC chairman
Ischinger called for closer coordination between the worlds of politics and technology, In connection with the
Internet of Things, Marc Goodman from the American
Think Tank Singularity University warned that "everything could be hacked". Goodman predicted the Internet would feature an "epic battle" of different interest groups.
Peter R. Neumann from
King's College London described the hierarchical structure of law
enforcement agencies as an organizational problem in
combating cyber-crime, at odds with the de-centralized operating mode of the Internet. Christopher Painter, Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the
US State Department, Latha Reddy, former
National Security Adviser of India and currently a member of the
Global Commission on Internet Governance, The first meeting was held on 10 July 2013 in the ballroom of the
Frankfurt Palmengarten under the auspices of
Federal Economics and Technology Minister Philipp Rösler and
Environment Minister Peter Altmaier. Other topics of the event were
climate change, the geostrategic consequences of
fracking and the German
Energy transition. The second Energy Security Summit was held in
Berlin on 27 and 28 May 2014. Key topics of the meeting included the "
shale gas revolution" in the United States and the
war in Ukraine. In his speech, Foreign Minister Steinmeier stressed the important role of
energy policy for
foreign and
security policy. Steinmeier pushed for a European Energy Union and urged the EU countries to demonstrate unity with regard to the Russo-Ukrainian war. The minister stressed the need to make compromises in the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, and warned against too high expectations of substituting American shale gas for Russian gas supplies.
EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger also spoke in favor of a European Energy Union with uniform gas prices. He also described Germany's energy policy as being in a "Romantic Valley”. The strategic issue of energy would require Germany to get involved with its technological and political competence, Oettinger stated. During the meeting, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk described the war in Ukraine as a "global security conflict" which only Russia would be responsible for. Yatsenyuk reiterated his country's refusal to pay a "political price" in exchange for gas supplies from Russia. The premier also expressed the willingness of his country to participate in a common energy policy with the EU. The third Energy Security Summit was held on 5 and 6 May 2015, again in Berlin. During the meeting, Iranian Oil Minister
Bijan Namdar Zangeneh laid out his country's plans for the development of the energy sector after the end of sanctions. After the previously reached deal to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis, the Minister demanded the rapid lifting of the economic sanctions. He dashed hopes that Tehran would build a gas pipeline to Europe to weaken the dominant role of Russia in the European gas market, citing transit problems and costs. At the same time, the Minister announced that his government would invest US$180 billion in the Iranian oil and gas industry by 2022. Other topics at the meeting included, among others, the proposed Energy Union in Europe, which both
Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-president of the
European Commission, and Rainer Baake, Parliamentary State Secretary in the
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, called for, as well as the German energy transition.
Bärbel Höhn, chairman of the German Bundestag's Environment Committee, referred to it as an important contribution by Germany to the creation of a global structure of a decentralized energy supply, which reduces dependencies and contributes to security and peace. Criticism came from Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo, who stated that the high share of
brown coal used for electricity generation was the “Achilles heel” of Germany's energy policy. Michael Fuchs, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, criticized the high burden placed on German citizens due to subsidies of 480 billion Euro earmarked for the energy transition. ==Criticism==