Ambassador (ret.) Wolfgang Ischinger
President of the Foundation Council of the Munich Security Conference Foundation
Prof. Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Ischinger is President of the MSC Foundation Council and serves as Chair of the MSC. He performs this function on a pro bono basis. Jens Stoltenberg is set to take over as conference chair in the near future.
Ischinger looks back at a long diplomatic career including his role as State Secretary in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and posts as German ambassador in Washington, DC and London.
Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger (Chairman of the Munich Security Conference) — Source: MSC / Kuhlmann
He teaches at the Hertie School in Berlin and is an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen. He advises companies, international organizations, and governments on political and strategic issues.
Ischinger is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and serves on a number of committees, including the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Atlantik-Brücke, the Yalta European Strategy Group (YES), the American Academy in Berlin, and the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. He also sits on supervisory and advisory boards of several international companies.
He is co-founder and shareholder of Agora Strategy Group AG, a geopolitical consultancy in Munich.
After studying law and international relations in Bonn, Geneva, and Boston, Wolfgang Ischinger worked in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in New York before joining the German Foreign Service in 1975. From 1982 to 1990, he served as special assistant to then-Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Between 1998 and 2001, he was Deputy Foreign Minister (State Secretary) of Germany; from 2001 to 2006, the Federal Republic of Germany's Ambassador in Washington, DC; and from 2006 to 2008, in London.
In 2008, he assumed the chairmanship of the Munich Security Conference. Under his leadership, the MSC grew from a staff of two to approximately 100 full-time employees, supported by a budget of over €30 million per year funded by partners and international sponsors. From 2008 to 2014, he also served as Global Head of Government Relations at Allianz SE in Munich.
In 2007, Ambassador Ischinger represented the EU in the Troika negotiations on Kosovo, and in 2014, he represented the OSCE in efforts to promote national dialogue in Ukraine. In 2015, he chaired the OSCE’s “Panel of Eminent Persons” tasked with strengthening the European security architecture.
He has received numerous honors, including the Grand Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the rank of Commander in the French Legion of Honor, as well as various foreign orders. He is also a recipient of the Leo Baeck Medal, the Hanns Martin Schleyer Prize, and the Nunn-Lugar Award.
