Moving Into the Twilight Zone
https://circleid.com/posts/munich-cybersecurity-conference-2026-moving-into-the-twilight-zone
Publish Date: 2026-02-23 16:55:00
Source Domain: circleid.com
One thing is for sure: Cybersecurity means today’s national security. This was reconfirmed last week in Munich, where the Munich Security Conference (MSC) and the Munich Cybersecurity Conference (MCSC) had their annual meetings with around 2000 hand-picked participants, among them 60 heads of state and more than 200 Ministers from 120 countries.
The heads of state, foreign and defence ministers met at the “Hotel Bayrischer Hof”; the Digital Ministers and Cyber Ambassadors met at Munich’s “Chamber of Commerce”, just one block away from the Hotel. But in both venues, the discussion circled around the same issues: the future of the transatlantic partnership, the threat of hybrid wars in the digital age and the risks and opportunities of AI.
Under Destruction
This year’s conference title was “Under Destruction.” The chairman of the MSC, Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, did use the language of a “demolition ball” which attacks the rules-based order of the United Nations. The UN emerged after World War II and has so far saved us from World War Three. But what about the future? If this order is gone, as the Canadian prime minister Carney recently recognized in Davos?
The options discussed in Munich were a little enlightening. There was a consensus that the “post-Cold War era” is over. However, it remained unclear what comes next. Will the “demolition ball” prepare for something exciting new—remember Schumpeter’s “Creative Destruction” – or will the world be pulled into a disaster?
The Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar probably gave the most precise outlook: “We are moving into a twilight zone,” he argued. And in such a twilight zone, there are different spaces and places. Somewhere, rules are working, and somewhere the law of the jungle will prevail. He did not see a “rupture” of the existing order. For him, it is a “transition.” The “Global North” is now confronted with similar uncertanies as…
