Westerners Pessimistic About Security

Residents of a number of major economies are feeling pessimistic about national security in the future. When asked whether their country will become safer in the next 10 years, respondents living in Japan, Germany and France were particularly skeptical, with between 42-50 percent of each surveyed group saying they thought it was unlikely. In Brazil and the United States, responses were more evenly split. China and India were the only countries surveyed that had a majority of people report that they were optimistic that their respective nations would improve. This survey was carried out ahead of the Munich Security Conference, which will take place from February 16 to 18, 2024 at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich.

The writers of the Munich Security Report 2024 state: “the Munich Security Index 2024 signals a moderation, but not a rupture, of the post-Russian-invasion trends. Traditional hard security threats appear to have peaked in 2022, but they remain higher than in 2021. Among the G7 countries, the threat of Russia, for instance, rose from being the 15th greatest concern in 2021, to the top concern in 2022, and dropped to fourth in 2023. The risk of nuclear aggression follows a similar pattern. In the BICS countries, risk perceptions have been less volatile since 2021, suggesting that citizens see Russia’s war to be less of a turning point. The fact that perceptions of Iran and Russia have remained static, and views of China have even improved, also contrasts markedly with views in the G7 countries.”