As world leaders and decision-makers gather in Munich for the 2014 Security Conference to focus on global security and foreign policy issues, DW talked to Nathalie Tocchi, Deputy Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, Olaf Boehnke, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Adrian Oroz, policy advisor at the Munich Security Conference.

One of the key issues likely to dominate the Security Conference is the ongoing NSA fallout and we wanted to know how the damage on Europe could be brought under control.

Given that there is so much bad blood regarding the NSA surveillance fallout, which could have a bearing on other aspects of the transatlantic partnership, we asked the experts how detrimental it could be for other areas of bilateral or transatlantic cooperation.

Coinciding with the opening of the Security Conference in Munich was the end of the Geneva II talks on Syria, which have yielded little to nothing in terms of progress. The parties to the talks have agreed to meet again, but what hope is there that the conflict which has claimed so many lives can be resolved any time soon?