Munich Security Report 2022

The Munich Security Report 2022, ‘Turning the Tide: Unlearning Helplessness’ can be read in full here.

This detailed and expansive report covers a wide range of prominent security issues, including how “Covid-19 has brutally exposed inequalities that exist within and across states” and how climate change, “inseparably tied to global divides,” is a “grave threat facing humanity today.” The report highlights how threats to both health and habitat will “defy successful containment if current levels of inequality persist.” 

The report draws on recent examples of extreme weather events such as floods in Germany and Canada; wildfires in Siberia, Greece, and India; as well heatwaves and droughts in the US and Brazil, to demonstrate that the effects of climate change are already being felt across the world. The report goes on to articulate how such events will undermine supply chains, economic prosperity, and psychological well-being.  

Solutions presented include the revision of social contracts at inter and intra state level, as well as a renewed effort to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Essential too is reaffirming the message that it is possible to solve humanity’s most challenging problems, lest we are otherwise overcome by “collective helplessness.” 

A main theme of the report is collaboration and cooperation. The report reinforces the need for solutions focused on reform and innovation, but reminds us that only, “collectively, they have the chance to turn the tide. Individually they risk being swept away.”