The Munich Security Conference (MSC; ) is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963. Formerly named the Munich Conference on Security Policy (), the motto is: Peace through Dialogue. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind. Over the past four decades the Munich Security Conference has become the most important independent forum for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers. Each year it brings together about 350 senior figures from more than 70 countries around the world to engage in an intensive debate on current and future security challenges. The list of attendees includes heads of states, governments and international organizations, ministers, members of parliament, high-ranking representatives of armed forces, science, civil society, as well as business and media. The conference is held annually in February. The venue is the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. History The conference evolved from the Internationale Wehrkundebegegnung / Münchner Wehrkundetagung, which was founded in 1963 by Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin. The resistance fighter from the Stauffenberg circle advocated to prevent military conflicts such as the Second World War in the future and brought together leaders and experts in security policy for this reason. The first meeting was limited to about 60 participants; among them were Helmut Schmidt and Henry Kissinger. Von Kleist led the meetings until 1997; his successor who led them from 1999 until 2008 was politician and business manager Horst Teltschik (CDU). Since 2009, the conference is headed by the former diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger. Ischinger established the Munich Security Conference GmbH non-profit company in 2011, which he has led until Christoph Heusgen took over the position in February 2022. Vice Chairmen are Ambassador Boris Ruge and Dr. Benedikt Franke, who is also CEO. In 2018 the company was subsumed into the MSC Foundation, with an endowment from contributions by the German government and other big donors. Funding has increased from less than €1 million of public funding in 2008 to about €10 million of mostly corporate funding in 2022. One of the sponsors is the U.S. consultancy McKinsey, which organizes the conference for free on behalf of the foundation. As a result, McKinsey wields great influence on the conference's agenda, guests and events, according to Politico but denied by McKinsey. The Munich Security Conference was canceled twice, in 1991 due to the First Gulf War and 1997