On July 7 and 8, the Munich Security Conference continued its longstanding tradition of hosting an exclusive event on the margins of the NATO summit. Under the title “Allies in Ankara,” the MSC provided a space in the Turkish capital for dialogue on pressing international security matters.

The event—which took place in the Ankara Palas—was organized in cooperation with the SETA Foundation and the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. Building on the successful hub concept first employed at the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, the MSC again hosted a carefully curated selection of events organized by partner organizations, including leading think tanks, universities, civil society organizations, business and media companies. In total, 45 events took place at the hub, covering a range of topics related to international security. This included both side events by partner organizations and a core program of panel discussions and conversations, which featured distinguished speakers like Czech President Petr Pavel and US Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Mike Rounds. 

You can find further information about the program on our website.

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On June 22, 2026, the third edition of the European Defense Roundtable (EDR) series took place at Ditchley Park in the United Kingdom in partnership with The Ditchley Foundation. The “Hard Core Europe” series examines how European states—in particular the European Group of Five (E5)—can advance defense cooperation in an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment.

The Roundtable brought together around 30 high-level decision-makers, business representatives, and experts to discuss the transition toward a European-led NATO, continued support to and closer defense cooperation with Ukraine, as well as the dilemmas associated with increasing defense spending.

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On May 29, 2026, the Munich Security Conference travelled to Paris for the second stop of its “Hard Core Europe” series of Defense Roundtables. The series examines how European defense cooperation can be adapted to an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment and what role the European Group of Five (E5) can play in this effort.

Bringing together around 40 high-level decision-makers, business representatives, and experts from all five countries, the Roundtable explored ways to deepen defense industrial cooperation and strengthen Europe’s deterrence and defense posture. 

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On February 14, 2026, the Munich Security Conference launched a new European Defense Roundtable series as part of its main conference. The series explores how European defense cooperation can be adapted to an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment and what role the European Group of Five (E5) can play in this context. During the session, high-ranking participants discussed how Europe can respond to the United States’ strategic reorientation, close the most pressing capability gaps, address persistent obstacles to ramping up defense industrial production, and sustainably increase defense spending. 

On the occasion of the 2025 NATO Summit, taking place in the Hague from June 24–25, 2025, the Munich Security Conference organized several events to advance discussions around transatlantic defense.

In partnership with the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, the MSC created “NATO in the Huis” as a central venue for strategic dialogue. Bringing together key stakeholders from across the transatlantic community, this event hub provided a platform for partner organizations to host their own sessions in alignment with the NATO Summit’s themes.

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On September 12th, 2024, the Munich Security Conference hosted a European Defense Roundtable in Kyiv. The Roundtable focused on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In two sessions and a confidential nightcap, participants discussed how Ukraine’s international partners can achieve a more systematic and consistent approach to their support for Ukraine.

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On July 11, 2024, the Munich Security Conference, in partnership with the Atlantic Council, organized a roundtable on transatlantic defense in Washington, DC. Around 40 decision-makers and leading experts from government, parliament, the military, the private sector and academia came together for discussions on how to adapt transatlantic security cooperation.

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On July 11 and 12, the Munich Security Conference, together with the Eastern European Studies Centre, the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund, and NATO's Public Diplomacy Division, organized a series of discussions at the NATO Public Forum, which took place on the sidelines of the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius. Following the opening remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, the MSC CEO and Vice-Chairman Benedikt Franke moderated a conversation with NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană. As the highlight of the second day, MSC Chairman Christoph Heusgen moderated a conversation with Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor.

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On June 27 and 28, a few days before the end of the Swedish EU Council Presidency and two weeks ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, the Munich Security Conference hosted a European Defense Roundtable in Visby, Sweden, during the famous Almedalen Week, considered as the country’s most important democracy festival and political forum. The MSC’s European Defense Roundtable kicked off with an evening reception and panel discussion aboard the German corvette Erfurt, which had sailed to Visby for the occasion. The panel discussion focused on drawing “Battlefield Lessons from Ukraine”. Participants agreed that Russia’s combination of attrition warfare and hybrid tactics highlights the need for both scale and innovation.

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On July 13, 2022, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) hosted a European Defense Roundtable in Paris, which brought together around 40 decision-makers and experts from governments, parliaments, armed forces, think tanks, and the private sector. Throughout three discussions chaired by MSC Chairman Christoph Heusgen and Vice-Chairman Boris Ruge, the participants discussed the next steps for strengthening European defense cooperation, EU-NATO cooperation as well as the European countries' contributions to collective defense in NATO, with a view to Russia's war on Ukraine and its repercussions for the European security environment. Furthermore, the participants discussed what Russia’s nuclear sabre-rattling means for the nuclear strategies of NATO's nuclear states and the Alliance as a whole, with a particular focus on France.

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On June 28 and 29, the Munich Security Conference, together with the Royal Elcano Institute, the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund, and NATO's Public Diplomacy Division, organized a series of discussion events at the NATO Public Forum, which took place on the sidelines of the 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid. The topics of the events were focused in particular on climate security, stability and deterrence in and around Europe, hybrid threats, and the current situation in Ukraine. 

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On July 30, 2020, the Munich Security Conference hosted a high-level digital event titled "An Update on the Nuclear Sharing Debate." In a small, confidential discussion, senior policy-makers, business leaders, and analysts exchanged views on the debate about Germany's future participation in the nuclear sharing arrangement of NATO. Michèle Flournoy, Co-Founder and Managing Director of WestExec and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy of the United States of America, and Katja Keul, Member of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag for the Alliance 90/The Greens Parliamentary Group, started the event with introductory remarks. The conversation was moderated by Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.

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On July 16, 2020, the Munich Security Conference, together with Institut Montaigne and the Royal United Services Institute hosted a high-level digital event titled “Keeping P(e)ace: Lessons from Ongoing European Military Operations.” With this event, the three institutions continued their series of joint roundtables that seeks to foster dialogue on European defense and security challenges, particularly focusing on the evolving roles of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Following the inaugural event at the Munich Security Conference 2019 and the European Defence Roundtable 2019 in London, this virtual roundtable preceded the third installment in Paris.

Designed as a small, confidential format, the event brought together a distinguished group of representatives from governments and parliaments, the military, and academia. Tobias Ellwood, Chairman of the Select Committee on Defence of the House of Commons, and Wolfgang Hellmich, Chairman of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag, opened the discussion with brief remarks on the challenges and prospects for European military operations and their implications for defense and security cooperation.

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On June 15, 2020, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) hosted a Digital Conversation between high-level political, economic and academic experts from Europe, Russia and the United States. In a small, confidential discussion, the participants exchanged their views on the Russian-transatlantic relationship in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Bob Zoellick, former President of the World Bank, Kirill Dmitriev, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, delivered short introductory remarks.

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Alongside the Munich Security Conference 2020, the MSC hosted a Defense Roundtable in cooperation with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Titled “Rebuild and Transform: Updating Europe’s Defense Toolkit,” the event brought together senior decision-makers and leading experts from politics, military, industry and academia, who discussed necessary steps to address current capability gaps in the European defense posture.

Given the changed security environment, the participants stressed the urgency of a substantial upgrade to European defense capabilities and the need to make the case for this upgrade towards the European public. To repel cyberattacks and profit from significant gains in cost efficiency, participants recommended investing not only into military equipment but also into digital capabilities. Besides, the participants underlined that formulating a common European strategy adapting institutional structures and processes is necessary for a substantial improvement of European defense. Repeatedly, the participants highlighted the unique, enduring value of NATO and therefore stressed the need for a stronger European pillar within the transatlantic Alliance. A further focal point of the discussions was the future of defense cooperation with the United Kingdom.

On the sidelines of the NATO Summit in London, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) organized a European Defense Roundtable in the British capital on December 4, 2019. European security and defense policy as well as the particular roles of Germany, France and the United Kingdom were the focus of the discussions. Organized together with the British think tank Royal United Services Institute and the French Institut Montaigne, the roundtable was part of an event series on the future of European security issues that aims to strengthen the trilateral relationship between Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Security challenges throughout Europe's neighborhood are steadily on the rise, making the search for new ways to strengthen European defense cooperation all the more important. In addition to NATO – the transatlantic guarantor of European security – a number of European initiatives have increased in significance. To allow for in-depth discussions on these initiatives, the European Defense Roundtable in London brought together high-ranking European decision-makers from politics and the military, leading security policy experts, as well as representatives of the defense sector. Given that the event took place immediately after the London NATO Summit, the conversations also addressed most recent developments regarding the transatlantic alliance.

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Following previous events in Brussels in July 2018 and Washington in April 2019, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) hosted this interactive dialogue format with selected international partner organizations for the third time. The agenda focused on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the face of new threats and geopolitical uncertainties. Titled "Innovating the Alliance," the event offered NATO states' "next generation" an opportunity to actively participate in the debate. Thanks to close cooperation with NATO and the British government in planning and implementing the event, the event also counted a significant number of high-ranking decision-makers among the participants.

NATO remains the most important security guarantor for the Euro-Atlantic area. Accordingly, an active discussion of the challenges facing the Alliance – ranging from climate change to rapid technological developments, such as in the field of artificial intelligence – is all the more crucial. The NATO Leaders Meeting in London covered these issues at the official governmental level. Meanwhile, the MSC, as a partner of NATO, contributed by fostering a broad public debate on the Alliance's key challenges for the future. "NATO Engages" offered a platform for this debate – and in particular for young voices and new ideas, as a majority of the more than 600 participants were younger than 35. Together, they discussed with NATO leaders such as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

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As this spring marked the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Washington Treaty, the founding document of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the NATO Ministerial convened Alliance foreign ministers in Washington, DC, at a critical juncture for the Alliance and the transatlantic community as a whole. On the day before the Ministerial, "NATO Engages: The Alliance at 70" – co-hosted by the Munich Security Conference, the Atlantic Council and the German Marshall Fund – took stock of the Alliance's achievements over the past seven decades. However, it also raised the issue of significant new challenges facing NATO – from outside its borders, from entirely new developments in the international security environment, as well as from within the Alliance.

In a town hall-style format, "NATO Engages" aimed to facilitate an intense discussion among high-ranking decision-makers as well as a diverse range of next-generation leaders and experts. Among others, the "NATO Engages" audience heard from Michael R. Pence (Vice President of the United States), Jens Stoltenberg (Secretary General of NATO), Jacek Czaputowicz (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland), Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey), Madeleine Albright (former Secretary of State of the United States) and Chris Murphy (US Senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee).

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On the side lines of the 55th Munich Security Conference, the MSC hosted a high-level discussion on the future of European defense cooperation titled "The Future of European Defense: Friends in Need – Friends Indeed?". The event marked the start of a three-part discussion series on the future of European defense in cooperation with the London-based Royal United Services Institute and the Paris-based Institut Montaigne. The two remaining roundtable events will take place in the British and French capital, respectively, in spring of 2019.

The roundtable brought together senior North American and European decision-makers from the military and politics, leading policy experts as well as representatives of the defense sector. The discussion focused on concerns about possible duplications between EU and NATO-led initiatives to strengthen joint defense capabilities. However, participants raised several examples of how this cross-organisational cooperation has been working well so far. With regard to European efforts, the development of a common European arms export policy was seen as a crucial political issue. For many participants, the imminent Brexit was the key challenge for European and transatlantic defense cooperation, and they welcomed the prospect of further MSC discussion formats on this issue.