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(bright upbeat music)
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Hello. I'm Matt Schlueter,
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Managing Director and partner at BCG,
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and also BCG's global leader
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for our Defense and Security Sector practice.
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Today, we have the privilege to speak with Benedict Franke,
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CEO of the Munich Security Conference.
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The Munich Security Conference, or MSC,
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is the preeminent global forum
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to discuss defense and security.
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And just recently,
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BCG had the privilege
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to announce a formal partnership with MSC
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to support MSC style leadership,
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and also to help MSC convene the leading defense leaders
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from around the world
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to discuss today's most difficult security challenges.
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We are thrilled
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to be partnering with such a fantastic organization,
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and are excited to learn more from Benedict directly
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about the defense and security trends
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that MSC is facing today.
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Benedict, it's great to see you again.
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Welcome, and we look forward to speaking.
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Thank you so much Matt for having me this morning,
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for your warm welcome,
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and for your very kind words
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about the Munich Security Conference.
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And we are absolutely thrilled
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to be partnering with BCG-
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because it's industry partnerships like this one
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that keep us relevant,
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that keep us ahead of the curve in defense thinking.
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I can't wait for our discussion this morning,
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and what we can achieve together in the years to come.
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Thanks Benedict.
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You know, one area I think we've always appreciated
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is that MSC has been at the forefront
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of evolving defense trends,
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really for several decades now.
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So perhaps to start our discussion,
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you could spend a few minutes elaborating
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on how the conversations have evolved within MSC-
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from your founding in 1963,
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all the way to the challenges of today.
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You've already mentioned
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we started in the early 1960s as a small meeting
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across the Atlantic between German
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and American thought leaders, senators, representatives.
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We have now evolved into
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what we believe is a pretty global setup
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with dozens and dozens of meetings
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around the world every year,
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and about 500 leading participants
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at our main conference in Munich, every February.
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The topics that we are really discussing now
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aren't all that different from the topics
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that we've been discussing for the last 60-odd years.
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However, we really have become more global.
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Now we have participants
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from places like Brazil, India,
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the United Arab Emirates sitting side-by-side
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with heads of state and military leaders,
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with CEOs, academics, environmentalists,
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and the most influential thought leaders around the world
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to discuss the pressing issues of the day
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and to advance dialogue wherever we can.
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The ambition has stayed the same over the last 60 years.
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We want to be the world's best,
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most relevant, and most constructive platform
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on the debate of foreign and security policy.
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The challenges that we're looking at today
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really boil down to sort of three silos:
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There are the issues of global order.
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There are issues of defense and security.
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There are issues of human security,
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resilience, sustainability.
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You know, Benedict the one word
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that maybe really resonates with me
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from that MSC ambition that you just laid out
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is the word relevant.
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I would offer if there's one thing we've learned,
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and we've gotten to know MSC over the past few months,
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but there's one thing we've learned,
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it's clear that MSC has not shied away
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from taking on many of the big topics
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that defense ministries are facing today.
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These include AI, space, climate, cybersecurity,
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all of which you were extremely relevant on.
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In fact, as I understand,
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MSC has even set up separate working groups
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to address each one.
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So I think it would be helpful
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maybe for us to dive into those specifically
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to understand if you have further thoughts
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on each of these areas.
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Lots of thoughts and probably more than I can squeeze
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into this little conversation today,
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but I guess we've got many years
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to develop this conversation.
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For us,
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technology has taken up
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such an important part of our work
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of the last couple of years.
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We've gone from talking about cybersecurity
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as a new arena of a confrontation competitionm
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to really looking at technology
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as a driver of conflict,
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as a new pedal space,
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but also as a new way to look at possible solutions
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to huge challenges.
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When we look at what really drives change
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in the defense sector,
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it is technology.
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And we are absolutely focused currently on
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the capacity of the public sector,
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of defense ministries, of the military to innovate
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and to align this innovation
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across our various alliances.
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And I think those are two issues
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that we have to get much better at in the west,
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and that we have to get much better at globally.
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We are not as good in innovating as we believe we are,
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and we are certainly not as good as we think we are
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on coordinating these innovations across the alliances.
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And so those are two sort of,
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geopolitical angles to industry issues
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that we're looking at right now.
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Benedict, I'm glad you brought up innovation
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because I think it's one area that clearly
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industry has a role where we can help support.
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And you also mentioned in your comments
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the role that MSC is playing to help
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different alliances coordinating innovation.
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But maybe you could spend a few minutes
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talking about the relationship and coordination
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between industry and the public sector,
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specifically
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how do you see industry's role to support
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innovation in the public sector we are at large?
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What the public sector needs
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is the private sector capacity to innovate,
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we've seen that all over the place.
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We've seen that most recently
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in the development of vaccines.
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But behind the scenes,
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we've also seen it in the areas of cybersecurity.
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Espionage- you've just recently heard about the Pegasus
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issue where an Israeli company has provided espionage
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software to selected governments around the world.
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The private sector has become a crucial aspect
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of military strategy, military outreach,
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and defense doctrine across the world
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and particularly in the west.
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And what we are really excited about is the question
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how do you get the public sector and the private sector
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to operate more efficiently?
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How can the private sector draw attention
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to problems down the line earlier and louder?
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Let me just raise the 5G example
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as an issue where industry was aware of
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the inherent problems in setting this new standup.
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But the public sector-
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especially the high political level-
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just ignored the problem until it was too late.
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So we at the Munich Security Conference
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are working very hard with our industry partners
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to raise questions like which standards to go for early
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and continuously to ensure that the debate doesn't derail
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when it's far too late or in fact it doesn't derail at all.
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And we're also excited to see
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what the public sector can learn from private sector
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innovation, processes, capacities,
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and how we can synchronize
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and create synergies between private sectors
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and public sectors across the west and globally.
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Thanks Benedict.
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As I reflect over the challenges
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of the past year,
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I have to commend the MSC with what you've done
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to still bring defense leaders together virtually
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through your Road to Munich campaign
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and all the various virtual events that you've supported.
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So as the world looks to open up,
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can you talk a little bit about
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what the next few months look like for MSC,
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and what big events you have planned?
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Yeah, it was a really difficult year for us-
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really difficult year and a half-
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and we're an organization
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that thrives on physical meetings,
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on intimate atmospheres,
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on conversation among the most powerful people,
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and that was very difficult to arrange
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over the last year and a half.
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However, we have started what we called
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the Road to Munich campaign
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that is supposed to lead up
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to the Munich Security Conference 2022
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in February of next year,
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and we have selected the transatlantic relationship
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as the core issue in this Road to Munich campaign.
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What we're really, really interested in
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is to map out the building sites and the relationship.
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And there are many.
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There are those that believe
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that with the Biden administration having come to power,
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all the billing sites have suddenly disappeared
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and it's almost a paradise once again.
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And yes, the tone has improved,
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but the building sites are still there.
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And with the Road to Munich,
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we have already looked at many important buildings sites,
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like Nord Stream 2,
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like the joint technology agenda,
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like digital trust,
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like issues like military sovereignty,
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military autonomy in Europe,
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the relationship between the NATO pillar
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in European defense
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and the European pillar in European defense.
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And we will continue to look at these building sites
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and map them out
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in order to present a list of action items
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at the next Munich Security Conference.
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What we really want to do is to showcase
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the low-hanging fruits out there,
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and to draw attention
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to the really, really difficult challenges
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and see whether we can't make
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some progress now that we have important elections
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in Europe coming up.
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The German elections in September of this year
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may provide yet another window of opportunity
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to tackle some of these challenges early on.
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And so you will see us going to Seattle and to Washington,
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you will see us looking at east west relationships again,
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you will see us looking at vaccine distribution,
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but also at some regional challenges
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like Yemen, Western Sahara,
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European periphery, Belarus, and Ukraine.
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All of these are very important building sites
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in our relationship with the United States,
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and many of those we believe can be solved
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if we slim down the issue
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and make it even clearer what the right policy
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responses to these challenges are
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and draw attention to the need
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for European and American agendas to be aligned,
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synchronized, and driven ahead simultaneously.
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Thanks Benedict.
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I know we only had a few minutes to speak,
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but let me just close by saying it's a very inspiring agenda
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and we're really excited to be a part of it,
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to be supportive of MSC,
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and we're very excited
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about the MSC and BCG partnership going forward.
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We look forward to hopefully seeing you very soon in person
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at the next event,
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and we really appreciate that you spent some time
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to join us today and share your MSCs agenda
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and the exciting things that MSC is doing.
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As always, thanks Benedict,
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really appreciate your time.
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Thank you so much for having me,
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I can't wait to get started with our knowledge partnership
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and look at some of the important issues
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on our agenda together.
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Many thanks for having me Matt.
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Thank you Benedict, take care.
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(bright upbeat music)