Prof. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Ischinger

Prof. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Ischinger is Chairman of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), which he has led since 2008. From 2016 to 2026, he also served as President of the MSC’s Board of Trustees. He is an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen and teaches at the Hertie School in Berlin. Wolfgang Ischinger advises companies, international organizations, and governments on political and strategic issues.
Among other roles, he is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and serves on numerous supervisory and advisory boards, including those of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the Center for European Reform (CER), the Yalta European Strategy Group (YES), the American Academy Berlin, the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., and the Geneva School of Diplomacy in Geneva. In addition, he serves on the advisory boards of Kekst CNC and Palo Alto Networks and is honorary chairman of the supervisory board of the Agora Strategy Group.
After studying law and international relations in Bonn, Geneva, and Boston, Wolfgang Ischinger initially worked in the office of the UN Secretary-General in New York before joining the Foreign Service in 1975. There, from 1982 to 1990, he served as a personal aide to then-Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. From 1993 to 1995, he headed the Planning Staff of the Federal Foreign Office and served as Political Director beginning in 1995. This was followed by his appointments as State Secretary (1998–2001), Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States (2001–2006), and to the United Kingdom (2006–2008). From 2008 to 2014, he served as Chief Representative of Allianz SE in Munich.
In 2008, he assumed the chairmanship of the Munich Security Conference on a voluntary basis. Under his leadership, the conference grew from an organization with two staff members into an institution with over 100 employees and an annual budget of more than 30 million euros, supported by partners and international sponsors.
In 2007, Prof. Dr. h.c. Ischinger represented the European Union in the Troika negotiations on Kosovo, and in 2014, he represented the OSCE in efforts to facilitate a national dialogue in Ukraine. In 2015, he chaired the “Panel of Eminent Persons” established by the OSCE to strengthen the European security architecture. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on foreign and security policy issues.