Name? Wolfgang Ischinger
Westphalian identity? Herman
Age? 73
Why is he in the news? Well he is not, but he should be. He is very influential this week, organising the Munich Security Conference.
Why do we care? Security conferences may sound boring, but they are actually important tools for foreign policy and international cooperation.
Why should you care? The Munich Security Conference is the biggest of its kind. It is privately organized and a forum for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers. Attendees are Heads of States such as Macron, foreign ministers like Wang Yi, or CEOs such as Mark Zuckerberg. A total of 140 countries are represented by their Heads of States or other government representatives. These people will decide on your future, your safety and how they can best benefit from your vulnerabilities. If you don’t care about that, you are either a nihilist or a masochist.
Who else cares? The media certainly doesn’t. They prefer talking about people having the flu on cruise ships.
Any further comments? Keep in mind that the importance of this conference is not what you hear about it but what you don’t hear about it. The talking does not happen in front of the cameras but behind them. Countries that do not have official relations may run into each other in the bathroom or sing Gangnam Style at the Karaoke Party.