The annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) always attracts much public attention, but never so much as this year’s event. On the opening day of the three-day event on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, spoke at the “China in the World” event of the MSC.

Donald Trump’s first term as president shook smug European certainty about continued U.S. protection, but his NATO warnings ultimately turned out to be a little more insistent (and abrasive) than those of his predecessors.

One of Joe Biden’s last consequential decisions as president was allowing Ukraine to strike deep within Russia using advanced American missile technology. This action marked a significant step up the escalation ladder. Vladimir Putin has warned that such actions could place Russia on a war footing with NATO. Biden’s risky decision reflects a broader problem of deterrence failure and the absence of military restraint in an increasingly multipolar world. Complicating matters further, Russia’s response—such as deploying advanced missile systems and tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus—signals a significant escalation using more advanced technologies that upend traditional deterrence frameworks.

Press release from February 17, 2025

As British state-controlled news opened its lunchtime broadcast on Valentine’s Day, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, reported that the Munich Security Conference was facing its ‘biggest crisis’ in its sixty one years.

Europeans are arguing for commitments that they cannot keep and Russia is bound to test, but not all agree anyway.

Extraordinary events last week have called into question the future of the post-war Western alliance. With Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern and Patrick Lawrence. Watch the replay.

Donald Trump and his team enter negotiations with Russia armed with a set of false, misleading assumptions. Donald Trump reportedly continues to believe, as does his team of negotiators, that Russia is suffering economically and militarily and wants to end the war in Ukraine. This is not true, at least as far as the folks in Moscow are concerned. Russia’s objectives are clear — restore normal relations with the United States and obtain an agreement to end the threat that NATO presents to Russia. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, and others, have been very clear in stating that Russia will not be bamboozled again into accepting a ceasefire with a promise of peace ahead. They made that mistake in halting their offensive operations after the 2015 battle in Debaltsevo as part of the Minsk II agreement.

Glenn Diesen joins the show today to discuss the Russia Ukraine War, how it ends. Where does Russia and Ukraine go from here? We then expand our conversation to discuss Trump and what his presidency means to the world. We discuss the rise of China, the great tech battle between the US and China and the future of our multipolar world.

President Trump says he wants to work with China and Russia on the issue of “slowing down, stopping and reducing nuclear weapons.” Trump went on to declare that “there’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons…We already have so many you can destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over.” He also said he would urge Russia and China to join him in cutting their respective military budgets by half.