Four Big Takeaways from the Munich Security Conference

Posted: February 20th, 2019

By General David Petraeus

General David Petraeus (US Army, Ret) served more than 37 years in the U.S. military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands, five of which were combat, including command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq during the Surge, U.S. Central Command, and Coalition and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. He also served as Director of the CIA and is now a partner in the KKR global investment firm and chairs the firm’s global institute.

The Cipher Brief asked expert and retired four-star General David Petraeus for his big takeaways after attending last weekend’s Munich Security Conference.

First, the wedge between the U.S. Administration and Europe is a good bit bigger than last year, and Russia, Iran, and China are working to highlight and exploit the differences. (Offsetting that somewhat was the largest U.S. congressional delegation ever to attend a MSC.) The speech by Chancellor Angela Merkel was a point-by-point, direct rebuttal of President Trump’s rhetoric and policies. Other European leaders echoed many of her sentiments; however, European countries’ actions to develop their own capabilities have not been particularly notable to date, and the reliance on, and centrality of the U.S. are still very evident in NATO and in many other spheres, as well.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+