The security threats we face, not only in Europe but around the world, are increasingly cross-border in nature. Those who seek to harm us pay little heed to the niceties of national boundaries or international law. Successfully tackling these crossborder threats requires a crossborder response. Our work on security in the European Union underscores the added value in enhanced cooperation. Security is first and foremost a national responsibility. But we …

Almost imperceptibly, the innocuous gadgets that surround us have become alive with threat. Fridges, smart electricity meters, cars, construction cranes – a bigger Internet of Things (IoT) means more hackable things: in other words, more points at which systems can be breached and disrupted.

Not only that, the pace of this change is likely to explode with the dawn of 5G technology, which potentially accelerates connectivity speeds to a level …

All through December 2018, a hacker by the online handle “Orbit” teased and tantalized his followers, releasing a new heap of hacked emails, chatlogs and home addresses each day. At first, German comedians, YouTube stars, rappers and TV stars were the only ones affected, with the media and public commenting and sharing the information that went viral. But then the real target, over 1,000 politicians from the Free Democrats and …

Not so long ago, when it came to cyberspace, states were believed to be powerless entities with no meaningful policy tools at their disposal. The supposed novelty of the cyber domain was thought to render traditional forms of state intervention and strategies useless. Now researchers and policymakers have come to realize that this is not the case, and that the erroneous assumptions of sovereign powerlessness were the result of flawed …

The unprecedented scale of digital conversion and very high level of connectivity in the world around us drastically increase the scope for cyberattacks. One undeniable result of this fact is the increased vulnerability of all sectors of industry, defense and critical infrastructures as well as our private lives around the globe. Living in the era of digital dependency has obviated the need to emphasize that a cyberattack on any of …

Munich, 14 Feb. 2019 – As international policymakers consider today’s conflicts and crises, their discussions are again being expertly accompanied by a special edition of the English language newspaper The Security Times.

For more than ten years, The Security Times published by Berlin-based Times Media has been a media partner of the MSC, and become a leading international platform for debating strategic security issues. The current issue focuses on fears …

With the passing of George Bush the elder, Germany has lost a loyal friend and a committed champion of freedom across the globe. One of the great transatlanticists and an architect of German Reunification, the former US president will always occupy a special place in our history books.

Although he may have be no Abraham Lincoln, or George Washington, or Franklin D. Roosevelt, or even Ronald Reagan, he was a …

We have lost a dear friend and will miss him greatly. Senator John McCain, one of the great transatlanticists and a champion of the free world’s values, is with us no more. His fortitude and statesman’s devotion to a liberal world order made him a towering figure of the transatlantic community of values of our time.

Senator McCain knew there is no alternative to the transatlantic alliance between the United …

In Germany, we are proud of our constitution – and rightfully so. After the terror regime of the National Socialists, the authors of the German Basic Constitutional Laws decided that it was of utmost importance to create a constitutional democracy in which the protection of human dignity, fundamental human rights and civil liberty was guaranteed and enforceable.

Freedom of the press, speech, opinion and information are secured in Article 5 …

Over three years after the launch of the military campaign against the Islamic State, the US-led global coalition, together with Iraqi and Kurdish forces, have accomplished their mission. Ninety-eight percent of the territory IS once held in Syria and Iraq has been recaptured. The caliphate’s most important cities, Raqqa and Mosul, are no longer controlled by jihadists. And of the 40,000 men who once fought for IS, only 3,000 are …