58th Munich Security Conference to take place in Munich on February 18 to 20, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented us from holding a traditional conference last year. Therefore, we are particularly excited to announce that we are planning to hold a physical Munich Security Conference in 2022, which will take place at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, from February 18 to 20.

We are well aware of the exceptional circumstances and the additional requirements due to the ongoing pandemic. The health of all stakeholders involved in the main conference as well as the Munich public is of paramount importance to us. Together with our partners and in close consultation with the relevant authorities, we are working on a comprehensive health and safety concept containing strict hygiene measures.

Update from December 22, 2021:

The Munich Security Conference Foundation remains committed to returning to in-person meetings wherever possible – particularly given the obvious increase in tensions around the world and the imperative to use every possible opportunity to de-escalate and rebuild trust. Nonetheless, we will not ignore the realities of the pandemic and will constantly adapt our planning to the rules and regulations at local, state, and federal level. As of today, we are continuing to plan for an in-person (working) conference from February 18-20 with delegation sizes, overall participation and external events reduced by two thirds, manifold new opportunities for hybrid or even virtual participation, and a stringent health & safety concept based on full vaccination and daily PCR-testing. Naturally, we will monitor the situation closely and will regularly update all stakeholders on our planning.

The MSC 2022 will be different from the conferences of previous years. It will not only be held in a reduced format with fewer guests, fewer media representatives, and smaller delegations traveling to Munich, but we will also introduce a number of innovative participatory formats to complement our traditional activities. Our focus on high-level participation, maximum interaction, and a carefully curated mix of public and off-the-record formats will remain. 

"Our world is in danger. Traditional certainties are crumbling, threats and vulnerabilities are multiplying, and the rules-based order is increasingly under attack. Climate change and the pandemic have added additional pressure. We hope that the informal discussions in Munich, including the many bilateral meetings and opportunities to look each other in the eye, will make a contribution to the difficult and bumpy road ahead. The need for dialogue has never been greater."

While the COVID-19 pandemic prevented us from hosting a regular Munich Security Conference in 2021, we did organize a series of high-profile virtual and TV formats on the "Road to Munich" to keep the security policy dialogue among international decision-makers alive and to lay the groundwork for in-person debates in Munich in February 2022.

This campaign began with our Special Edition on February 19, the very day our 57^th conference would have taken place in a normal year. It provided a globally visible platform for senior decision-makers, including Joe Biden, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson, António Guterres, Jens Stoltenberg, Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, John F. Kerry, and Bill Gates, to discuss how to renew transatlantic cooperation and tackle global challenges.

Invitations to the Munich Security Conference 2022 will be sent out beginning October 25, 2021. Given that faked invitations to our events are regularly used as click-bait by the hacker group Phosphorus in its global phishing campaigns, we would like to draw attention to the following details of our invitation process:

First, real invitations are exclusively sent from email addresses ending in @securityconference.org.

Second, we are cooperating with the Bundesdruckerei and other partners to provide easily verifiable digital certificates and signatures to all emails we send as well as to encrypt all messages during the entire transit to their recipients. Please make sure to check the identity of the sender through the respective functions in your mail system. If in doubt, please do not open the message and contact us directly for clarification.

Details about the accreditation for media representatives interested in covering the MSC 2022 will be announced on our website in late January.