From the 'Munich Security Conference' to a 'Munich Conference for Peace Policy'
To ensure that the ‘Munich Security Conference’ becomes a conference for peace policy in the future, we seek dialogue with the organizers, sponsors, and participants of the Security Conference, as well as with the interested public.
“The world of tomorrow will – indeed must – be a society founded on non-violence.
This may be a distant goal, an impractical utopia.
But it is not in the least unattainable, as one can work for it here and now.”
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Our Vision
is a Munich Conference for Peace Policy, a forum for fair global cooperation, from which initiatives for a just, ecological, and non-violent global domestic policy emerge.
Our Approach
is non-violence and dialogue. We provide impetus and seek discussion with the organizers, sponsors, participants, and official observers of the Security Conference, as well as with the interested public.
Our Motivation
A security policy based on violence cannot be sustainable; it ultimately leads to more insecurity in societies, countries, and the world. We therefore want to contribute to changing the Munich Security Conference. We want it to use its reputation to move beyond violence and rigid thinking, to convene on the basis of a forward-looking peace logic, and to
influence world politics.
Our Organization
The project group “Changing the Munich Security Conference” has been a registered non-profit association since 2006, whose work is strengthened by interested individuals from other peace groups and initiatives. Internal cooperation is laid down in the association’s statutes, the idealistic background in the mission statement, and the path of change in our project description. The association and the project group are led by the board elected by the general assembly of members.
Our Cooperations
For our vision to become a reality, a societal rethinking of global security is necessary. We trust that others are also working towards this change in consciousness in their own ways. We see the various forms of action of the Munich peace movement – demonstrations, peace conference, peace prayer, dialogue – as complementary pillars that support the critical examination of the current Security Conference. We ensure that our non-violent profile remains recognizable.
The association is regularly financially supported by various peace organizations and (political) foundations: Pax–Christi (Archdiocese of Munich and Freising), Petra-Kelly-Foundation, kokon office of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Catholic Fund or through individual project funding.
The association is part of the supporting committee of the International Munich Peace Conference
and cooperates in individual measures, e.g., with the University of Philosophy Munich, the Forum Civil Peace Service, the campaign “Rethink Security” and peace partners from political work (e.g., non-violent green) and the Global South (e.g., University of Peace in Africa).
Our Perspective on the Munich Security Conference
In the course of our many years of engagement with the Munich Security Conference, a duality has become increasingly clear to us: On the one hand, it offers opportunities for dialogue and informal exchange that transcend the boundaries of NATO and the EU, for example, with Russia, Iran, or China. On the other hand, the former military studies conference is still a forum for traditional, backward-looking security policy and Western dominance, which solidifies and promotes the ideology of the indispensability of military force.
We want to change this!
Board and Activists
Dr. Thomas Mohr
Chairman
Founding member of MSKv
Psychoanalyst
twww.mohr-politik.de
www.mohr-praxis.de
Twitter: @DrThomasMohr
Matthias Linnemann
Co-Chairman
Dipl. Geographer
“War can only be prevented in one way: by people refusing to go to war.”
(Albert Einstein)
Markus Brunnhuber
Theologian, Social Pedagogue, Communication Trainer
“Conflicts are conditioned by our human freedom. They promote development and are part of our coexistence. To resolve these, even internationally, non-violently, as in many other areas, is my motivation for engaging in a Munich Security Conference that is less and less militarily driven and more and more shaped by peace logic.”
Hubert Heindl
Development Sociologist,
Head of the Agency
for Project Consulting (APTE)
“One has never seriously tried to fight war. One has never closed all schools and all churches, all cinemas and all newspapers to war propaganda.” (Tucholsky)
Erwin Schelbert
Founding member of MSKv
Study Group
for Peace Research
Not to ban the
Security Conference from Munich, but to change it so that it becomes a forum that promotes comprehensive human security
(“Human security”) and a culture of peace: “Be the future today that you want to see tomorrow”
(Gandhi)
Anja Ufermann
Trainer
for Nonviolent Communication
Gudrun Haas
Trainer for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) and Mediator
Dance leader for seated dance and floor dance (BVST)
“I feel peace within myself when I simultaneously maintain good relationships with my fellow human beings and when I advocate globally for social justice with peace. These three pillars form peace for me, signify wholeness, and are my trust. One of the ways I see as implementable for all three pillars is my willingness to engage in dialogue. That is why I am a founding member of the project group ‘Changing the Munich Security Conference,’ which enters into dialogue with the MSC. Furthermore, the project group is a way – beyond protest – to exert influence and stand up for my values.”