Wolfgang Ischinger

Ambassador Ischinger is Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) and Professor for Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. He advises private sector, governments, and international organizations on strategic issues. He has published widely on foreign and security policy with a focus on European and transatlantic issues.
From 2006 to 2008, he was the Federal Republic of Germany's Ambassador in London and from 2001 to 2006 in Washington, D.C. He served as Deputy Foreign Minister (State Secretary) of Germany from 1998 to 2001.
In 2007, Ambassador Ischinger represented the European Union in the Troika negotiations on the future of Kosovo. In 2014, he served as the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-In-Office promoting national dialogue in the Ukraine crisis. In 2015, he was tasked with chairing the OSCE “Eminent Persons Panel on European Security”, mandated to offer recommendations on how to build a more resilient architecture of European security.
From 2008 to 2014, he was also Global Head of Government Relations at Allianz SE, Munich.
Ambassador Ischinger studied Law at the Universities of Bonn and Geneva and obtained his Law degree in 1972. He did graduate and postgraduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and at Harvard Law School, Cambridge/USA (M.A., 1973).
Ambassador Ischinger is a member of the Trilateral Commission, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and of the Governing Board of the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute (SIPRI). He also sits on the Boards of the International Crisis Group (ICG), of the Atlantic Council of the US, of the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), of the American Academy in Berlin and of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). 

Robert Gates
Robert Gates
U.S. Secretary of Defense (2006-2011), 14th YES Annual Meeting, 2017
«Putin is trying to do everything he can to delegitimize and undermine Western institutions. The weaker the West is, the stronger Russia is.»