NW–30 · Security & resilience
In German policy, security increasingly means more than police and armed forces. It means volunteers who can be called on, hospitals that hold, infrastructure that recovers and a government that can still decide. This page follows that idea through Nina Warken's career — civilian in focus, documented in detail.
Concept
Resilience is the ability of a society to absorb a shock and keep working.
Germany's first National Security Strategy, adopted in 2023, described its approach as "integrated security": protection against threats depends on many actors and sectors working together, from foreign and defence policy to civil protection, health, energy, cyber security and the economy. The strategy's central idea is that a modern society is vulnerable at its connections — supply chains, digital networks, information flows — and that robustness has to be built across all of them.
The institutional consequence has been a growing emphasis on coordination. In August 2025 the federal government set up a National Security Council as a cabinet committee chaired by the Chancellor, with the Head of the Chancellery as a member, tasked with a consolidated situational picture, strategic foresight — including updating the National Security Strategy — and resilience exercises. Responsibility for the individual fields, however, remains spread across ministries and the Länder.
Nina Warken has encountered this agenda from several sides: as a member of parliament working on civil protection, as president of a THW volunteers' association, as health minister planning for health care in crises, and now as Head of the Federal Chancellery. The sections below connect these stations by theme. They do not suggest that one role caused the next. Three forms of resilience.
Six fields
For each field: who is responsible in the German system, and where Nina Warken's documented work touches it.
Responsibility: the federation for protecting the population in the defence case, with the THW and the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance under the Interior Ministry; the Länder for disaster protection in peacetime.
Her record: Interior Committee work on volunteering, civil protection and disaster response; president of the THW helpers' association in Baden-Württemberg, 2015–2023. THW
Responsibility: shared — federal legal framework and medicines law, Länder hospital planning, municipal public-health offices.
Her record: as health minister, a ten per cent increase for health security in the 2026 budget and plans for a Health Security Act (not passed). Health security
Responsibility: largely operators of energy, water, transport and digital networks, under federal and Länder regulation, with federal agencies for IT security and civil protection.
Her record: as health minister, supply security for medicines and medical products as part of critical supply chains. Europe and supply chains
Responsibility: every authority for its own continuity; at the top, the Chancellery's round-the-clock situation centre and the cabinet's National Security Council.
Her record: since 29 July 2026 Head of the Federal Chancellery and member of the National Security Council by virtue of that office. Chancellery role
Responsibility: lead ministries for their sectors; the Chancellery for bringing information together for the Chancellor and cabinet; the Federal Press Office for public information.
Her record: as health minister, the plan for a digital situational picture of beds, staff and supplies; now heading the office where cross-government information converges. Coordination
Responsibility: no single owner — citizens, volunteers, employers, municipalities, civil society and public broadcasters all contribute.
Her record: long-standing involvement with volunteering through the THW association and her parliamentary work on volunteer engagement. Parliamentary work
Munich Security Conference
The Munich Security Conference is an annual international forum on foreign and security policy, organised by an independent foundation. Nina Warken's documented connection to it has two parts — one from her time as health minister, one from her current office.
At the conference in February 2026, according to the Federal Ministry of Health, she argued that a resilient health system was not a luxury but a necessity of security policy, and discussed medical supply structures, staff capacity, data needs, civil–military cooperation, stable supply chains and reliable infrastructure with partners including representatives of the Bundeswehr, the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence and the World Health Summit. The ministry framed the protection of the civilian population as the core concern.
„Sicherheitspolitik ohne ein funktionierendes Gesundheitswesen ist nicht denkbar.“
In the same interview she outlined the planned Health Security Act: a framework for health care in crises including the defence case, clearer responsibilities, a digital situational picture and stockpiling, with the Health Ministry in the lead and the Defence and Interior ministries closely involved — without duplicate structures. That framing put civilian health care, not military capability, at the centre.
Her membership of the foundation council since September 2026 belongs to her current period of office. The council is a governance body of the conference's foundation; her predecessor at the Chancellery, Thorsten Frei, had also been appointed to it in 2025. Membership does not imply any role in the conference's programme or positions.
Documented stations
Only dated, sourced events are listed. Former and current offices are marked.
Joins the Committee on Internal Affairs; works on volunteering, civil protection and disaster response.
President of the THW-Landeshelfervereinigung Baden-Württemberg.
Meets WHO Director-General Tedros in Geneva; additional €10 million for WHO reforms announced.
EPSCO Council in Luxembourg: supports the proposed Critical Medicines Act.
Final Bundestag debate on the 2026 health budget: +10% for health security.
Munich Security Conference and Welt am Sonntag interview on the planned Health Security Act.
Government question time in the Bundestag: announces the health security legislation.
Head of the Federal Chancellery; member of the National Security Council by office.
Member of the Munich Security Conference foundation council (Bundestag disclosures).
Debate
The broad security concept has supporters and critics. The questions below concern the agenda as a whole, not positions attributed to Nina Warken.
If health, infrastructure and volunteering are all framed as security, they compete for scarce funds with each other and with everyday services. Critics warn that a security label can shift attention to rare scenarios; supporters reply that preparation is far cheaper than improvisation.
Planning for the defence case requires cooperation between civilian systems and the armed forces. The open question is how to achieve it while keeping civilian institutions civilian and avoiding duplicate structures — a principle the Health Ministry stressed in its 2026 plans.
Most operational capacities lie with the Länder and municipalities. National preparedness therefore depends on federal–state agreement, which can be slow but also distributes capacity across the country. Domestic policy.
Situational pictures need data from hospitals, operators and authorities. That raises questions of data protection, reporting burdens and public trust — which itself is a core component of resilience.