From permanent guest to boss: the former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will be the new chairman of the Munich Security Conference. It’s over for his predecessor after just three years.
Now it’s official: The previous NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (65) will be the new head of the Munich Security Conference (MSC). He will replace the previous head Christoph Heusgen after the next conference in February. The personnel details were already leaked a few weeks ago and have now been officially confirmed. The security conference will then take place for the first time at the beginning of 2026 under the leadership of Stoltenberg.
“I have dedicated my entire political life to maintaining peace. It is me
“It is a great honor to take over the chairmanship of the Munich Security Conference and to make a contribution to its mission of “Peace through Dialogue”, emphasized Stoltenberg after his official appointment. Few international platforms are as important as the MSC for conflict prevention, dialogue and international cooperation to promote, he said.
Stoltenberg resigned as NATO Secretary General at the beginning of October after ten years in office. In this role he was a regular guest at the security conference. Previously, among other things, he was Prime Minister of Norway for several years.
The President of the Board of Trustees of the Munich Security Conference Foundation and long-time conference chair Wolfgang Ischinger expressed his delight at Stoltenberg’s willingness to take over the management of the MSC: “With his worldwide reputation and his enormous experience, Jens Stoltenberg will lead the conference into an even more important and global role. There is no one more qualified.” He added that the board of trustees was very grateful for the great contribution that Heusgen made during his three-year term of office.
Heusgen, once a foreign policy advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and later Germany’s permanent representative to the United Nations, only held his position as MSC boss for a short time. “I am extremely grateful to the MSC team for everything we have achieved over the past three years,” he said. This included opening the MSC to the “global south” and gender parity on the stages.
Since its founding in 1963, the Munich Security Conference has developed into one of the most important international forums on security policy. Every year in February, heads of state and government, ministers, military experts and representatives of the arms industry gather at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich to discuss security policy issues. The focus is primarily on questions that concern the security of the NATO states.
Horst Teltschik and Ischinger were chairmen for many years. Teltschik, a former adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, chaired the conference from 1999 to 2008. Ischinger, who succeeded him, only handed over management to Heusgen in 2022.