A weekend at the Munich Security Conference

It’s a peculiar thing, the Munich Security Conference. Staged every year since 1963, it attracts an illustrious but potentially inflammable mix of participants – from prime ministers, defence chiefs, corporate leaders and spies, to environmentalists, academics, humanitarians and human rights activists – all sharing the same space for two and a half days, sitting at the same roundtables, hustling for the same meeting rooms. Despite some highly divergent views, everyone generally tries to be civil to each other.

Our very own Theresa May was there, braving the snow to make a much-trailed speech on Brexit and security. But the real drama felt like it was elsewhere, particularly on the last day when the leaders of the major powers in the Middle East dominated the stage: first a bombastic, Iran-baiting performance from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, then an eloquent but highly defensive riposte from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and finally a volley of softly-spoken but relentless counterpunches from the Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir. The hardness of the positions taken by these latter two – Iran and Saudi Arabia – is particularly worrying for the millions of children already suffering so much in Yemen and Syria, the two countries where their geopolitical rivalry is being played out not with words, but with weapons.

We were there to launch The War on Children, our new report that lays out how severely today’s conflicts are damaging children. We estimate that there are more than 350 million children around the world currently living in conflict zones – that’s one in every six and an increase of three quarters from the early 90s. These are startling statistics that demand a serious response.

Perhaps even more shocking, our analysis – based on UN reports – suggests that three times more children are being killed and maimed each year than in 2010. Moreover, there has been a 15-fold increase in reported incidents of aid being deliberately blocked by warring parties. These sieges and blockades – from South Sudan to Syria to Yemen – are causing children to die in desperate numbers, and entirely preventably, from lack of food and medicine.

Our challenge to the great, the good, and the not-so-good in Munich was “what are you going to do about this outrageous and unacceptable trend?”.

The good news is that we secured many allies. Everyone we spoke to was seized by the moral urgency of our argument. Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, told us how crimes against children in conflict is now a strategic priority for her office. Jan Eliasson, the former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, was especially articulate in making and re-making the argument that our primary shared purpose has to be to protect those 350 million children.

In discussing youth radicalisation, I made the point that if your answer to the question is that youth are a threat then you’re asking the wrong question. The so-called “youth bulge” is a reality that should be a cause of excitement – these people will make up a substantial portion of humanity’s future – not a source of fear. The questions to answer are how can we help create societies in which those young people receive an education and secure jobs? How can we help them live free from debilitating cycles of violence? How can we help them have hope for their futures?

There were men in uniform everywhere in Munich, but the repeated refrain throughout was that military answers are rarely the right answers. The harm done by war reverberates for years and decades to come – whether in the physical, psychological or developmental damage done to generations of children, or in the long-term damage done to societies that become less stable, less cohesive and prone to further violence.

But another refrain was that humanitarian action isn’t the answer either, or at least it cannot be the only answer. Humanitarian action is a big part of what we do at Save the Children – and it’s work that I feel uncomplicatedly proud of – but it’s only ever a sticking plaster. What’s needed is serious investment in diplomacy and peacebuilding and that takes leadership which, frustratingly, seems to be in short supply at the moment.

The plea from many of us in Munich, including some of the political leaders present, is for a more humane world, one that places a higher value on the lives and futures of its children. As we approach Save the Children’s centenary next year, we’re redoubling our efforts to make this case. The world needs to do much, much more to protect children from conflict. We’re determined to help make this happen.

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