Munich Security Conference to kick off tomorrow: what issues will take centre stage?

Munich Security Conference (MSC), which is an annual conference on contemporary global security policy challenges, will take place from 17 February to 19 February this year. World leaders will put their heads together at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich debating issues, the most important being Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Though Russia had been building its troops along the Ukrainian border, the full-blown invasion only took place after a few days of MSC 2022. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 27 last year addressed the country's parliament, Bundestag, where he termed Russia's invasion of Ukraine a watershed moment or zeitenwende (a german word which means: times-turn).

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The Munich Conference 2023 will see the participation of a slew of high-ranking international experts along with over 45 heads of government. Most important global organizations including the UN, NATO and the EU will be represented by their heads.The conference will take place under the chairmanship of Ambassador Dr. Christoph Heusgen.

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What will take centre stage in Munich Security Conference (MSC) discussions?

Russia's invasion of Ukraine

One of the most prominent questions that will be raised at the conference will be "What does the world look like a year after the beginning of the invasion?" and a closer look at whether the current situation entails a "global recommitment to a rules-based international order."

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Voices from Global South

Another main topic on the agenda is to look beyond the transatlantic core and put more emphasis on diverse perspectives from the Global South. The conference will "champion diversity and sustainability" in the form of either "gender parity amongst speakers" or "the inclusion of voices from the Global South."

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This year, just like the last six decades, the event will be governed by the Munich Rule, which is to "Engage and interact with each other: Don't lecture or ignore one another."Earlier, the Munich Security Report (MSR) was also published in the runup to the conference which analysed "increasing authoritarian revisionism and the competition between different visions of order" based on "human rights, global infrastructure, development, energy security and nuclear safety."

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