The MSC 2020 at a Glance
From February 14 to 16, more than 500 high-level international decision-makers convened at the 56th Munich Security Conference. Leaders in the fields of politics, business, academia, and civil society discussed current crises and future security challenges.
In recent years, the West as we know it has become contested both from within and from without. A common understanding of what it means to be part of the West is fading. The Munich Security Report 2020, the official primer for this year’s Munich Security Conference, refers to this phenomenon as “Westlessness.” Faced with a new great-power competition and a multitude of crises that require a concerted Western response, what does it mean for the world if the West cannot agree on a common strategy leaves the stage to others?
The MSC 2020 will seek answers and solutions to this fundamental question by examining the European project, defence cooperation, and the liberal international order as a whole. But far from Western navel-gazing, decision-makers and experts from across the globe will discuss hotspots from Libya to the Persian Gulf and further to East Asia. Pressing global challenges will be a focal point, above all the effects of climate change, but also the intersections of trade and technological progress with international security.
Large number of international decision-makers expected
Leading voices from Western countries will take the stage in Munich. French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend the MSC for the first time. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to open the conference. Mirroring the rising role of Asia, the MSC will see more prominent representatives from the region than ever before, including the foreign ministers of China, Japan, and – for the first time – India: Wang Yi, Toshimitsu Motegi and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Against the backdrop of the Coronavirus outbreak, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is set to attend, along with numerous leading figures of other international organizations. All told, more than 35 heads of state or government, as well as over 100 foreign and defence ministers are expected at the conference. An expanded preliminary list of senior participants can be found here.
Numerous events outside the Main Hall
A trademark of the MSC, the 2020 conference will again be accompanied by dozens of official side events by partner organizations, and by thousands of bilateral and multilateral meetings. Among others, a follow-up meeting to the Berlin Conference on Libya and a ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition Against Daesh will convene. The MSC itself will host roundtables including topics such as the Arctic, Health, Energy, Cyber Security, and Transnational Security, along with a number of events for the interested public.
Further information on the 56th Munich Security Conference will be available in the press release published before the conference. On Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn we will continuously inform about live streams, highlights of the conference, and much more.
