13 February 2026

What do conflict, climate change, pandemics and migration all have in common? Each is recognised as a driver for instability, economic disruption and geopolitical tension, and each now features prominently at the Munich Security Conference. But there is another profound security threat linking them all, one that affects everyone on this planet and yet remains conspicuously absent from the agenda as world leaders gather in Munich this week: the rise and spread of drug-resistant infections.

When geopolitical tensions are stretched and global insecurity heightened, global health invariably suffers. It is not just war itself that cost lives, but also the threat of it. The climate of confrontation and fragmentation that surrounds them can result in resources diverted, cooperation weakened and the collapse of systems set up to protect people. Today, with global insecurity more volatile than at any point since the Cold War, that is exactly what we are now witnessing. And sitting squarely in the middle, at the fault line between health and security, is the escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis.