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.

[4] The resistance fighter from the Stauffenberg circle hoped 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.

[1] Under the leadership of Teltschik the Security Conference opened in 1999 for political, military and business leaders from Central and Eastern Europe as well as India, Japan, South Korea and the People's Republic of China.

An exception is the presentation of global political decisions, such as the exchange of instruments of ratification for the New START disarmament agreement between the United States and Russia, which was held at the conclusion of the security conference in 2011.

At the 39th conference in 2003, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer doubted the reasoning of the U.S. government for a war against Iraq with the words "Excuse me, I am not convinced".

The idea is to invite a number of distinguished and high-ranking participants to changing capitals and give them the opportunity to confidentially discuss current international security policy issues and develop sustainable solutions.

The 47th Munich Security Conference[15] was held from 4 to 6 February 2011 and again assembled top-level decision makers from all over the world, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov whilst Belarus was excluded from the circle of attendees because of the country's human rights situation.

[18] The conference focused on Euromaidan, new security risks, loss of importance for Europe, the NSA spying affair and political normalization in former Yugoslavia, as well as the Middle east, and Iran's nuclear program.

600 international guests attended the event, including 30 heads of state, 70 foreign and defense ministers, directors of various intelligence agencies and 700 journalists from 48 countries.

With a total of 680 participants,[23] including 30 heads of state and government, nearly 60 representatives of international organizations and 65 top business leaders,[24] it was the largest conference to date.

Among the 600[26] participants were heads of state and government from more than 35 countries, 50 foreign and 30 defence ministers, other representatives from the fields of politics, the military, the arms industry, business and science, as well as members of international intergovernmental and civil society organizations.

Russia was not present at the conference,[32] while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Western nations that they should abandon their policy of appeasement toward Moscow,[33] and foreshadowed the Russian onslaught which was to occur only five days later: "To really help Ukraine, it is not necessary to constantly talk only about the dates of the probable invasion... Ukraine has been granted security assurances (with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances) in exchange for giving up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal.

Representatives from all over the world participated,[37] among them: Kamala Harris, Antony Blinken, Rishi Sunak, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, Annalena Baerbock, Boris Pistorius, Ursula von der Leyen, Jens Stoltenberg, Wang Yi, Andrzej Duda, Francia Márquez, Kaja Kallas, Nana Akufo-Addo and Volodymyr Zelensky (virtually).

[38] Other cross-cutting issues were climate change, food insecurity and energy security, as well as regional and country-specific topics, including Iran, the Horn of Africa and Russia.

Notably, at the 2023 Munich Security Conference, billionaire investor George Soros commented that the financial troubles of the Adani Group could weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hold on India’s government, potentially paving the way for institutional reforms.

[62] Starting with the Munich Security Conference 2023, the Women Parliamentarians Program aims to establish a network to connect the new generation of female decision-makers from the German Bundestag and the European Parliament.

A select group of cross-party elected officials engages in a variety of formats throughout the course of a year in order to generate new ideas in German foreign, security, and development policy.

[70] The Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz stated that any border changes in Europe were "unacceptable", but at the same time stressed the need for cooperation with Russia.

The security situation in Africa, the fight against international terrorism, and the challenges posed by climate change and epidemics were central themes of the meeting.

[82] Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister, Zhang Yesui, stressed in his opening speech the importance of dialogue and cooperation for the security of the region.

[83] During the core group meeting, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, reaffirmed his country's willingness to contribute to peace and security globally.

According to media reports, the supervisory board chairman of Deutsche Bank, Paul Achleitner, the head of the construction group Bilfinger Berger, Roland Koch, as well as Peter Terium, the CEO of the energy supplier RWE and Johannes Teyssen of E.ON were in attendance.

[93] Elmar Brok, Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg urged to ward off cyber attacks with offensive actions and stressed the need for a deterrence component.

[99] The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, expressed his fear that such attacks could damage confidence in democratic elections in general.

[100] MSC chairman Ischinger called for closer coordination between the worlds of politics and technology,[99] in order to create the basis for an open, free and secure web.

[102] Peter R. Neumann from King's College London described the hierarchical structure of law enforcement agencies as an organizational problem in combating cyber-crime, at odds with the de-centralized operating mode of the Internet.

[98] Other participants included Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and CTO of CrowdStrike, Michael Chertoff, former United States Department of Homeland Security, chairman and founder of the Chertoff Group, Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University and former US Ambassador in Russia, and Iddo Moed, Coordinator of Cybersecurity for the Israeli Foreign Ministry,[103] Christopher Painter, Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the US State Department,[104] Latha Reddy, former National Security Adviser of India and currently a member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance,[103] as well as, Uri Rosenthal, former Dutch foreign minister and current Special Envoy of his country for cyber politics.

[citation needed] During the meeting, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh laid out his country's plans for the development of the energy sector after the end of sanctions.

[114] Criticism came from Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo, who stated that the high share of brown coal used for electricity generation was the “Achilles heel” of Germany's energy policy.

[115] Michael Fuchs, Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, criticized the high burden placed on German citizens due to subsidies of 480 billion Euro earmarked for the energy transition.