Munich Security Conference

In the Northern Hemisphere, annual waves of influenza disease with varying degrees of spread and severity are observed each winter. With wastewater-based surveillance (WBS), including both centralized (one wastewater treatment plant, WWTP) and decentralized (three sewers) sampling, we aimed to detect differences in influenza viral copy numbers in wastewater over time, to investigate (sub)-community transmission within a city. A total of 313 grab/spot and composite samples were collected in Munich, Germany, during three consecutive influenza seasons (2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25) and were analyzed for influenza A virus (IAV) and influenza B virus (IBV) nucleic acids using digital droplet PCR (ddPCR). IAV and IBV wastewater copy numbers and citywide reported influenza cases showed strong correlations in both sampling approaches, suggesting the decentralized approach to be a reliable indicator of infection trends across the city. The three influenza seasons analyzed differed significantly in terms of their seasonal distribution, for example, exhibiting a strong co-circulation of IAV and IBV only in the 2024/25 season. Only with wastewater analysis, we reveal a reporting delay of influenza A cases at the beginning of the 2023/24 season. Higher influenza copy numbers were detected in sewer samples compared to the WWTP influent, likely due to viral decay. The study underscores the potential of influenza WBS to enable detection of seasonal onset early, identify local transmission patterns, and reveal underreporting in routine surveillance systems.

In the event of adisaster, compliance with basic hygiene measures is crucial. These measures are carried out regardless of the colonization or infection status of the patient in order to prevent the transmission of pathogens to other patients and personnel and to minimize the risk of a nosocomial distribution of (potential) infectious pathogens. This primarily includes hygienic hand disinfection and the use of special barrier precautions and personal protective equipement depending on the situation as well as safe injection and infusion techniques, proper processing of medical products and full vaccination protection of the personnel. When consistently applied basic hygiene measures also protect against the transmission of multidrug-resistant pathogens in undetected colonized patients and many viral infections. Due to amassive increase in demand (e.g., during the pandemic), disruptions in supply chains or breakdowns in facility-specific structures, prolonged shortages of materials that are important for implementing basic hygiene can occur. In these situations, substitution strategies are required, e.g., for the in-house production of hand and surface disinfectants, the handling of drinking water, alternative ways of processing medical products, wound care and the use of antibiotics.

ABSTRACT Given the ongoing climate crisis, the frequency and severity of natural disasters are increasing. These events result in enormous reconstruction costs, pose a high burden on state budgets, and potentially drive homeowners into private insolvency. One policy instrument for collectively covering such costs is a compulsory insurance scheme for natural hazards. As the impact of natural disasters is uneven, introducing mandatory insurance regulation has a range of social and financial implications. While some European countries have introduced compulsory schemes, others have adopted different policy responses. Taking this variation as the main puzzle, I consider what factors can explain the introduction of compulsory insurance for natural hazards. Building on public risk and quiet politics literature, I identify several factors and test these against three empirical cases: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This analysis finds that focusing events are necessary for policy change, but the position and power of interest groups, as well as exogenous shocks within the EU context, were also crucial to explaining the introduction, rejection, and even termination of compulsory insurance schemes for natural hazards.

As home to the world’s largest digital companies and competing for global technological leadership, the United States (US) and China can leverage their centrality to global digital networks to gain control over vast amounts of data. In line with the theory of ‘weaponized interdependence’ (WI), this allows them to economically coerce each other and third countries by gathering strategic information or restricting network access. In this paper, I take up these risks of digital WI and analyse whether they are being addressed in the course of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) negotiations on e-commerce. To examine whether members securitise (digital) trade beyond the increasing invocation of Article XXI on ‘national security’ grounds, I combine quantitative (n = 1,428) with qualitative (n = 100) textual analysis of statements made in the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce (WPEC) and the Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce (JSI-EC), respectively, between 2015 and 2024. I find that considerations of ‘WI’ are largely absent from the debate. When members securitise digital trade, they do so to justify their own cyber policies and regulations, but not to express concern about those of others. Instead, they criticise the market-distorting effects of each other’s practices. Traditional trade issues feature more prominently in these negotiations and are rarely linked to security issues, pointing to the WTO’s tendency to approach trade in technocratic silos.

Abstract While international organizations (IOs) have played a central role in global governance in the post-Cold War period, during the last decade many have struggled. Due to the rise of populism, the Trump presidency, and the renewed assertiveness of the emerging powers, various IOs have been challenged in ways that put their ability to perform core functions at risk. This book studies the responses of IOs to such existential challenges. It focuses on the central institutional actors inside IOs—IO leaders and their bureaucracies—which have a strong interest in the survival and well-being of their organizations. Presenting six case studies and drawing on more than 100 interviews, the book highlights the variation in the way in which these institutional actors try to cope with and counter existential challenges: Some fight tooth and nail to keep their IOs relevant, while other institutional actors are more circumspect in their actions. The book shows that institutional actors try to tailor their responses to the specific types of existential challenges, but their ability to do so depends on the quality of their leadership, organizational structure, and embedding in external networks. This book is thus about the IOs themselves. It is about those who lead IOs at the top but equally about the desk officers who keep the machinery running. By providing a view from behind the scenes, the book uncovers important processes about the survival of IOs and international institutions.

Abstract In the midst of ongoing crises, understanding how citizens perceive administrative crisis management is more relevant than ever. Combining organizational literature with insights from legitimacy research, this article scrutinizes how the public evaluates governance decisions concerning prominent crisis management dilemmas: flexibility versus stability, inclusion versus exclusion, and equity‐based versus needs‐based resource distribution. The paper argues that flexible, inclusive, and equity‐based governance decisions are generally perceived as more legitimate. However, governance decisions are also associated with adverse effects that can mitigate any initially positive effect on legitimacy. The argument is tested in a large‐scale randomized survey experiment in the context of a migration crisis, where governance decisions were manipulated. The findings support the expectations for inclusive crisis management and equity‐based resource distribution, which are perceived as the most legitimate governance alternatives. Internal adaptations of administrative practices toward more flexible and adaptive solutions, however, are perceived less legitimate than stable governmental action.