In the lead-up to and aftermath of MSC 2025, the Professor of International Security has been a prominent voice in various major media outlets.
The age of multipolarisation
Ahead of this year’s MSC, Tobias Bunde, faculty member and Professor of International Security at the Hertie School, alongside Sophie Eisentraut, Head of Research & Publications at MSC, co-authored two guest articles. For Project Syndicate, they explored “The Age of Multipolarization” based on the introductory essay of the Munich Security Report 2025. While it remains unclear whether we are truly in a multipolar system, they argue that we are witnessing “multipolarisation”—describing both an ongoing power shift toward a world where a greater number of actors are vying for influence and the international and domestic polarisation that comes with increasingly incompatible visions for the international order. While many states often view a multipolar world as an opportunity, growing competition among major powers is already hindering cooperation on global crises and threats. With few states prioritising the common good, Bunde and Eisentraut highlight the uncertainty of whether depolarisation can redirect multipolarity toward stability and collective action.
Read Bunde and Eisentraut’s “The Age of Multipolarization” here.
Germany: The great power that makes itself small
In Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bunde and Eisentraut turned their focus to Germany’s self-image in “Deutschland: Die Großmacht, die sich kleinmacht” (Germany: The great power that makes itself small). Using data from the new Munich Security Index, they highlight a stark contrast: while Germans are relatively pessimistic about their country’s future, international perceptions tell a different story. While only 22% of Germans see their country as a great power, 54% of respondents abroad perceive Germany to be one. Despite being NATO’s second-largest economy, Germany continues to underestimate its geopolitical role—a stance that international partners struggle to understand. Their argument is clear: Germany doesn’t have to be a great power, but it must stop making itself small.
Read Bunde and Eisentraut’s “Deutschland: Die Großmacht, die sich kleinmacht” (in German) here.
A Westless world
At this year’s MSC, European leaders expected clarity from the U.S. on transatlantic security. Instead, Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a scathing critique of Europe’s supposed failures—attacking its stance on free speech, migration, and political alliances. His remarks drew sharp pushback from European officials, who saw them as an attack on the very values that once bound the West together.
As Bunde outlines in “A Westless World”, the conference exposed a deepening ideological divide, as Vance articulated an illiberal, nationalist idea of the West, in sharp contrast to the liberal-internationalist interpretation that had for decades been the common ground at the Munich Security Conference.
While Europeans now seem willing to significantly increase defence spending, the Trump administration’s support for anti-European and pro-Russian forces within Europe risks undermining a stronger European role in defence. In this respect, as Bunde puts it, “Europeans can agree with Vance: the greatest threat to the West is indeed coming from within.”
Read Bunde’s “A Westless World” here.
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