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A grim analysis of a wave of global crises

Wolfgang Ischinger is a long-serving diplomat who always appears calm and collected. In his last year at the helm of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) journalists have been keen to hear Ischinger’s assessment of the current crisis with Russia.

A grim analysis of a wave of global crises
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Wolfgang Ischinger is a long-serving diplomat who always appears calm and collected. In his last year at the helm of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) journalists have been keen to hear Ischinger’s assessment of the current crisis with Russia. He says he is convinced that, “more needs to be done to make people aware of the importance of deterrence as a method of conflict prevention.” He has also remarked that he welcomes the fact that, “Europe once again has a voice in the intensive diplomatic discourse.” And this is after it “almost seemed that Europe would be reduced to the role of onlooker while others discussed both the crisis and how it might best be resolved.”

Fact is, however, that Ischinger and his team have their sights on much more than just the current crisis on the Ukrainian-Russian border. The 70-year-old has been MSC chair since 2008. The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held since 1963. It is not an official government event, but a forum for informal and discrete discussions between the high-level international participants. Looking back at the past 14 years, it is with some consternation that Wolfgang Ischinger “cannot recall a time when there were so many overlapping crises.” It is a reference to the challenges posed by Iran, China, the evolving Euro-Atlantic security architecture. A long list that could still encompass many other global trouble spots. Indeed, the extraordinary profusion of unresolved crises is itself the central topic in this MSR. Traditionally, the report is published just a couple of days before the arrival of the official guests at Munich’s legendary Hotel Bayerischer Hof. It sets both the agenda and the intellectual tone. This year, it’s titled “Turning the Tide – Unlearning Helplessness.”

The report describes a mood of “collective helplessness.” In the same way as ordinary individuals, whole societies can be overcome by a sense that they simply have no answer to the challenges they face. “There can be no doubt about it: 2021 could not in any way be characterised as a year of geopolitical optimism. New crises hit the headlines on a more-or-less monthly basis, contributing to the sensation that a growing wave of crises was threatening to overwhelm us,” the report reads. It concludes that this leads to a vulnerability to which liberal democracies are particularly prone. But what makes this mood so perilous is that it brings with it the danger that the world fails to face up to the challenges that it is confronted with even though the resources, the strategies and instruments required do so are available.”

Ulrike Franke is a security expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She reads the report as an urgent call to the West to do more to come up with solutions to the problems facing the world. According to Franke, the diagnosis of “helplessness” is essentially a continuation of the 2020 MSC report that focused on the notion of “Westlessness,” a much-referenced neologism describing a widely-shared sense of dismay and disillusionment coupled with an existential restlessness concerning the very viability of the West.

The current report is based on the outcome of a global survey on levels of risk assessment. Germans, for instance, see climate change and the resulting extreme weather events as the greatest threat. For respondents in the US, meanwhile, the main cause of concern stems from possible cyberattacks. In China, respondents see the United States as posing the greatest threat. In Russia, growing inequality is the biggest worry. And India is the only country where it is a hostile nuclear attack that people most fear.

This article was provided by Deutsche Welle

Wolfgang Ischinger is a long-serving diplomat who always appears calm and collected. In his last year at the helm of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) journalists have been keen to hear Ischinger’s assessment of the current crisis with Russia. He says he is convinced that, “more needs to be done to make people aware of the importance of deterrence as a method of conflict prevention.” He has also remarked that he welcomes the fact that, “Europe once again has a voice in the intensive diplomatic discourse.” And this is after it “almost seemed that Europe would be reduced to the role of onlooker while others discussed both the crisis and how it might best be resolved.”
Fact is, however, that Ischinger and his team have their sights on much more than just the current crisis on the Ukrainian-Russian border. The 70-year-old has been MSC chair since 2008. The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held since 1963. It is not an official government event, but a forum for informal and discrete discussions between the high-level international participants. Looking back at the past 14 years, it is with some consternation that Wolfgang Ischinger “cannot recall a time when there were so many overlapping crises.” It is a reference to the challenges posed by Iran, China, the evolving Euro-Atlantic security architecture. A long list that could still encompass many other global trouble spots. Indeed, the extraordinary profusion of unresolved crises is itself the central topic in this MSR. Traditionally, the report is published just a couple of days before the arrival of the official guests at Munich’s legendary Hotel Bayerischer Hof. It sets both the agenda and the intellectual tone. This year, it’s titled “Turning the Tide – Unlearning Helplessness.”
The report describes a mood of “collective helplessness.” In the same way as ordinary individuals, whole societies can be overcome by a sense that they simply have no answer to the challenges they face. “There can be no doubt about it: 2021 could not in any way be characterised as a year of geopolitical optimism. New crises hit the headlines on a more-or-less monthly basis, contributing to the sensation that a growing wave of crises was threatening to overwhelm us,” the report reads. It concludes that this leads to a vulnerability to which liberal democracies are particularly prone. But what makes this mood so perilous is that it brings with it the danger that the world fails to face up to the challenges that it is confronted with even though the resources, the strategies and instruments required do so are available.”
Ulrike Franke is a security expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She reads the report as an urgent call to the West to do more to come up with solutions to the problems facing the world. According to Franke, the diagnosis of “helplessness” is essentially a continuation of the 2020 MSC report that focused on the notion of “Westlessness,” a much-referenced neologism describing a widely-shared sense of dismay and disillusionment coupled with an existential restlessness concerning the very viability of the West.
The current report is based on the outcome of a global survey on levels of risk assessment. Germans, for instance, see climate change and the resulting extreme weather events as the greatest threat. For respondents in the US, meanwhile, the main cause of concern stems from possible cyberattacks. In China, respondents see the United States as posing the greatest threat. In Russia, growing inequality is the biggest worry. And India is the only country where it is a hostile nuclear attack that people most fear.
This article was provided by Deutsche Welle

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