Press Release
MSC Receives Endowment From the Stanton Foundation to Strengthen Work on Nuclear Security
Thanks to a generous endowment by the US-based Stanton Foundation, a leading funder of research on nuclear security, the Munich Security Conference will strengthen its work on nuclear deterrence, non-proliferation, and arms control.
Discussing Nuclear Challenges at the Munich Security Conference
From its inception as the Internationale Wehrkundebegegnung in the early 1960s, the Munich Security Conference has been a platform dedicated to navigating the complexities of the nuclear age. During the first three decades of its existence, questions of nuclear strategy in the bipolar era even dominated the discussions in Munich. While other security risks shaped the debates after the end of the Cold War, discussions at the Munich Security Conference persistently addressed the enduring challenges posed by nuclear weapons. In light of a new and likely more dangerous nuclear age, shaped by the renewed prominence of nuclear threats, the emergence of an increasingly multipolar nuclear order, the ongoing erosion of arms control, and the advent of new technologies, a stronger emphasis on grappling with these evolving nuclear challenges has become imperative.
Supporting Enlightened Debates to Prepare Our Societies for the Challenges of a New Nuclear Age
The generous endowment from the Stanton Foundation will allow the MSC to provide a venue for enlightened debates on nuclear security among policymakers, military leaders, scholars, and other strategic thinkers. Returns of the endowment provided to the Munich Security Conference Foundation will fund regular nuclear security roundtables at different MSC events, study groups, and publications on nuclear security.
The project is a joint endeavor with the Centre for International Security at the Hertie School, which will serve as the academic partner in the project and has received a separate endowment. The project will be directed by a steering committee, consisting of principal investigators Dr. Tobias Bunde (Hertie School/MSC), Prof. Marina Henke (Hertie School), and Prof. Julian Wucherpfennig (Hertie School). Prof. Graham Allison (Harvard University) and Prof. Wolfgang Ischinger (MSC/Hertie School) will support the project as members of its advisory board.
“We are immensely grateful for the support of the Stanton Foundation, which will allow us to double down on our efforts to have the best possible debates on how to deal with old and new nuclear risks. We want to spark debates on the most promising policy ideas to tackle the dangers of a new nuclear age,” says Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
The Stanton Foundation has supported a series of projects on nuclear security at the Hertie School’s Centre for International Security since 2018, which from the very beginning included outreach events at the MSC. The MSC and the Centre for International Security have co-hosted events and workshops in Berlin and Munich and will now further strengthen their cooperation to contribute to the nuclear debate in Europe and beyond.
“The Foundation is pleased to invest in the continued cooperation between the Munich Security Conference and the Hertie School. We are confident this project will contribute to the emergence of a new generation of European scholars and policymakers tackling the most challenging issues of nuclear security,” said Graham Allison, advisor to the Stanton Foundation’s nuclear security program.
Raising the Nuclear IQ in Germany and Europe
The endowment comes at a crucial point in time, as the need for rigorous nuclear security research, teaching, and outreach has increased even further since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Wolfgang Ischinger, President of the Foundation Council of the Munich Security Conference Foundation and founding director of the Centre for International Security, comments: “I am proud and happy: The Stanton Foundation endowment will not only enrich and strengthen academic work on nuclear strategy and security issues, it will also open a whole new chapter at the Hertie School’s Centre for International Security itself. And the Munich Security Conference will provide an ideal platform to include political and military decision-makers as well as the broader public in the necessary discussions about the complex issues involved.”
Über die Stanton Foundation
The Stanton Foundation is a US-based private foundation established by Frank Stanton, a long-time president of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and an adviser on nuclear issues to President Eisenhower in the 1950s. One of its key areas of focus is to support policy research in international security with a special emphasis on nuclear security.
