New visions for a global world order: This is a guiding principle of the 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC). There should not be winning states on one side and loser states on the other, but rather everyone benefits from international cooperation.
That is why the Security Conference has set itself the goal of inviting a particularly large number of representatives from countries in the so-called Global South, i.e. from states in the southern hemisphere that are not part of the Western industrialized nations. Whether from Asia, Africa or South America – guests take part in almost all panels and make their perspective heard. Can this be a step towards a fairer world?
For former Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, more participation also means more opportunities. “It used to be 60- to 80-year-old white men who talked about hardcore security,” Rabbani Khar told DW. “We’re still talking about hardcore security, but we’re doing it in a way that’s a little more diverse,” she smiles. The perspective from your own region is crucial in order to think about alternative strategies.
Hotel Bayerischer Hof – location of the Munich Security Conference: Previously mainly for old white menImage: Sven Hoppe/dpa/picture alliance
This is also how Kenya’s former foreign minister, Raychelle Omamo, sees it. “I like the diversity and the insights that help us think about security differently and from a more global perspective,” she told DW. She is also a member of the Security Conference’s Advisory Council – which means she helps determine its direction. “The more voices from around the world have their say, the more exciting the discussions are and the richer the solutions.”
Security also concerns climate change and water issues
Solutions are urgently sought: The focus of the conference is of course the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine – but also the turning away from the West by many countries in the so-called Global South. Climate change and migration as a result of environmental destruction are also a global threat. They are among the most pressing issues facing the world‘s population and hit countries in the Global South the hardest.
An Indonesian village sinks into the sea
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Security no longer means what we previously understood it to mean, says Ambika Vishwanath. She is co-founder and chair of the Kubernein Initiative, a geopolitical consulting firm based in Mumbai, India. “It’s no longer just about defense and military. It’s also about water, food, human health. And all of these are connected,” explains Vishwanath in an interview with DW. It is not enough that more people from the Global South are represented at international conferences such as the Munich Security Conference. She calls for topics to be discussed that are closer to the reality of life – such as climate change and water problems. That’s why she rejects the term “Global South” because it suggests that these issues don’t affect everyone: “It’s not just about who’s talking here, but about what they’re talking about.” Vishwanath has been coming to the conference for over ten years and she welcomes the fact that the group of participants is becoming increasingly diverse. But change isn’t happening fast enough for her.
Human rights versus security policy
In order to accelerate cultural change, you have to make the space for it yourself, says Düzen Tekkal. She is a journalist and chairwoman of the human rights organization Háwar.help, which, among other things, runs projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. And she moderates a panel on sexual violence as a weapon of war – a topic that has received little attention at the security conference in the past. “There is nothing deficient in seeing the interests of the Global South represented,” Tekkal told DW. “We in the liberal West benefit from these experiences.”
But not everyone is welcome. As a matter of principle, the organizers of the security conference do not invite representatives of repressive regimes. But that by no means means that all participants have a clean slate. In addition to Indian and Chinese government members, the controversial Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who has been accused of human rights violations, also arrived.
Recently re-elected for the fifth time and now at the Munich Security Conference: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh HasinaImage: Wolfgang Rattay/REUTERS
Saskia Bruysten cannot understand this. She founded the social enterprise Yunus Social Business in Bangladesh together with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Yunus was sentenced to prison in Bangladesh in what human rights activists say was politically motivated. “I think it’s important that governments from the Global South are represented here, but it’s also shocking that someone like Sheikh Hasina is here on stage being applauded while she puts her only Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mohammad Yunus, in prison.” Now she has to represent Yunus, she complains: “Dialogue is important here on site, but we also have to address human rights issues and discuss them publicly – and not just applaud.”
Düzen Tekkal also believes that it shouldn’t just be about representation. Human rights issues were not sufficiently integrated into the debates and the conference was still dominated by the military-industrial complex. This is where we should start: “Experience has shown that those who supply the weapons come from the Global North, but that those who buy them are from the Global South. And there is always the question: who is responsible “The dead? Those who shoot or those who deliver?”