Commentary
Stiftung Wertebündnis Bayern
Commentary: April 10, 2024, from SWB’s website about their current events, MSC Side Event
Head Winds Facing the West in Transition to a Multipolar World
The goal of the side event at the Munich Security Conference (MSC), which took place on February 16, 2024, at Occhio on Lenbachplatz in downtown Munich, was to involve young people in foreign and security policy debates and connect them with decision-makers. Prof. Dr. Katarzyna Pisarska, Chair of the Warsaw Security Forum, for example, spoke about "Three major international 2024 events that will be game changers for Europe and the Transatlantic Alliance." She emphasized the urgency of protecting our liberal democracy through joint and decisive action. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg discussed with Anna Rosenberg (Amundi) and young people "How to reach the middle ground in democracies, avoid extremism, and prevent an American polarization scenario in Europe." Other topics included "Under the radar risks," "The Geopolitics of AI," and the issue of dealing with the "Changing nuclear order."
In live-streaming sessions, young participants were able to experience the atmosphere of the security conference venue. Experts from politics, think tanks, foundations, and academia were available for in-depth discussions.
The side event was a collaboration between the Stiftung Wertebündnis Bayern, Charlotte von Bomhard (MunichYoungForum), UnternehmerTUM, and the MSC, supported by Occhio and Schottenhamel.
Powering a sustainable future
Munich – ESI at Munich Security Conference side event on threats to liberal democracy
14th of February 2025
ESI’s Gerald Knaus was invited to participate in a panel discussion on “Walls versus Open Doors: Fear, Migration, Human Rights, and the Fragility of Liberal Democracy in a World of Disruption” organised by the Munich Young Forum Munich Security Conference Side Event.
Gerald warned against the dangers of weaponizing the fear of migration. He pointed out that populists from the US and Europe are exploiting such fears to undermine democratic values, from Trump’s restrictive asylum policies to the AfD’s tactics in Germany.
He argued that mass deportations and asylum bans pose a direct challenge to the European Convention on Human Rights, threatening not only fundamental principles but also the stability of the Schengen area and the Single Market. He advocated for practical solutions such as safe third country agreements, similar to the 2016 EU-Turkey deal, and establishing legal migration pathways. These steps, he emphasized, would reduce irregular migration, save lives, and adhere to international law.
Gerald urged decisive action to address the rising anti-immigration sentiment in Europe. He stressed that Europe‘s policies should be humane and effective, protecting those in need while ensuring efficient border management...
Commentary by Frederik Fink:
Author: Frederik is a graduate in History and International Relations from King’s College London, with a concentration in transatlantic foreign and security policy. He has interned at the American-German Institute, focusing on and publishing on German grand strategy, as well as conducting research on transatlantic foreign and security policy.
A Fragmented West: A World of Daunting Challenges – Demanding New Responses, Fast.” A more fitting theme for the MunichYoungForum's second annual convocation could hardly have been chosen. Fast-forward a year, and those daunting challenges have hardened into perennial features of international politics.
2025 heralded the active recalibration of the postwar order. Mr. Trump upended and recalibrated American foreign policy, amidst a fourth year of war in Ukraine and a “Twelve-Day War” in the Middle East. Concurrently, Russia sustained its hybrid warfare against NATO's European members, and an AI boom fueled both market euphoria and public anxiety. “Under Destruction,” the title of the 2026 Munich Security Report, describes not only the decomposition of our familiar world order, its stability, and its once-sacrosanct values, but also the personal life and future of us all.
The MYF's 2026 theme, “Living on the Edge,” sought to capture these turbulent times. Before an audience of nearly 300 young participants – ranging from young academics and policymakers to emerging decision-makers from institutions, think tanks, and prestigious universities across Europe and the United States – an excellent lineup of panels and speakers addressed the pressing issues confronting our society. Topics ranged from Russia's threat to the Eastern Flank, to rapid advances in defence technology, to Europe's efforts to compete in the space race for stable communications, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Beyond these weighty topics and the valuable insights offered by our distinguished speakers, participants also had time to connect and exchange ideas and opinions. In times when ideological and political fault lines widen, and discourse grows more insular, dialogue remains an essential vehicle for bringing together diverse groups of young people.
What remains the most profound conclusion of this third, and highly successful, edition of the MunichYoungForum is that despite the upheavals of our time, the direction of the future ultimately lies in our own hands. While the past two decades have been comparatively tranquil, one must not forget that preceding generations of young men and women were equally confronted by unprecedented technological change and political instability. For statesmen today, as for the emerging stakeholders of tomorrow, change remains the law of life. How well this new generation of stakeholders meets the challenges of its time will be judged by whether “the greatest, most consequential issues of the human condition have been faced, and that decisions to meet these challenges must be taken (…) before it is possible to know what the outcome may be.“[1] Yet if this year's Forum has demonstrated anything, it is that the generation gathered here possesses precisely the judgment, courage, and clarity of purpose needed to meet that test. The insights shared by this year's speakers are therefore not merely reflections on a turbulent present, but a foundation on which sound future policy can be built.
[1] Henry Kissinger, World Order: Reflection on the Character of Nations and the Course of History (Penguin Books, 2015), 374.
Munich – Space Rivalry: Europe's Strategic Awakening in Orbit
13th of February 2026 – Commentary by Olmo Ferro, who attended the 2026 MunichYoungForum and is a Senior Associate at Compass-Aerospace.com
The MunichYoungForum’s (MYF) February 13th, 2026 Space Rivalry panel picked up on a key security dimension: space-enabled warfare. Indeed, the days where space was mostly the purview of scientific research are gone. Today, its strategic importance to real world conflicts, from enabling reconnaissance to targeting and communication, can no longer be underestimated.
Germany’s commitment to invest €35bn in space-related defence projects by 2030 is thus a crucial opportunity to develop sovereign German and European space capabilities. European satellites have been exposed to cyber-attacks, eavesdropping and jamming from Russia, and may be similarly exposed to Chinese capabilities. Further, American restrictions on the use of Starlink and Maxar have highlighted the dependency on US capabilities for European defence readiness.
While the German funding will be insufficient to develop a wholly independent European space capability, it moves the discussions about what needs to be built on the continent from theory to practice. Already today, Germany features some impressive space startups, from launch providers, such as Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg, to Polaris’ space planes and DCUBED’s in-space manufactured solar arrays.
It can only be hoped that Germany’s investment will supercharge today’s young builders and aspiring policy makers, strongly represented at the 2026 MunichYoungForum, to take the initiative on space technology and create European strategic awakening here on Earth, and beyond.