Where will BE-CYBER 2026 be held?

BE-CYBER 2026 will be held in Wavre, BEL.

What is the primary focus of BE-CYBER 2026?

BE-CYBER 2026 focuses on cybersecurity, bringing together stakeholders to discuss and strategize on cyber threats and defenses in Wavre, BEL.

When does BE-CYBER 2026 begin?

BE-CYBER 2026 begins in the fall.

BE-CYBER 2026

Name: BE-CYBER 2026
Start: 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z
Location: Wavre

Sep 22, 2026Wavre, BelgiumIn-person

Registration open

BE-CYBER 2026 is a significant event focusing on cybersecurity, held in Wavre, Belgium. This gathering serves as a crucial platform for stakeholders to discuss and strategize on the evolving landscape of cyber threats and defenses. The event aims to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among professionals, policymakers, and industry leaders.

Committees & topics

First Committee (Disarmament & International Security)
Disarmament & International Security (GA First Committee)
Second Committee (Economic & Financial)
Second Committee (Economic & Financial)
Third Committee (Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian)
Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian & Cultural)
Novice General Assembly (GA) Committee
Novice General Assembly
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Human Rights Council (HRC)
Human Rights Council (HRC)
Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO)
Executive Board of the World Health Organization
Historical Security Council
Historical Security Council

Why it matters

In an increasingly interconnected world, cybersecurity is not merely a technical concern but a fundamental aspect of national security, economic stability, and individual privacy. Events like BE-CYBER 2026 are vital for addressing the complex challenges posed by cyber warfare, data breaches, and digital espionage. The insights and collaborations forged at such conferences directly influence the resilience of critical infrastructure and the protection of sensitive information across various sectors.

The discussions at BE-CYBER 2026 will likely delve into emerging threats, innovative defense mechanisms, and the regulatory frameworks necessary to govern cyberspace. The collective expertise brought together in Wavre, BEL, contributes to a more secure digital future, impacting everything from international relations to daily online interactions. This event underscores the continuous need for vigilance and adaptation in the face of sophisticated and persistent cyber adversaries.

How to prepare

Delegates preparing for BE-CYBER 2026 should focus on understanding the multifaceted nature of cybersecurity, encompassing both technical and policy dimensions. A strong grasp of current geopolitical tensions and their implications for cyber warfare is essential. Reviewing the "Dynamic Analysis" lesson could provide a foundational understanding of how to approach complex, evolving systems like the cyber threat landscape.

Furthermore, delegates should consider the diverse range of stakeholders involved in cybersecurity, from government agencies and private corporations to international organizations and individual users. The "Stakeholder Mapping Workshop" and "What Is Stakeholder Mapping?" lessons offer valuable frameworks for identifying and understanding the interests and influence of these various actors. Preparing to engage with these different perspectives will be crucial for effective participation and contribution at the conference.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Belgium

As the host nation, BEL is committed to fostering international cooperation in cybersecurity and strengthening its national cyber defenses.

Role in topic

BEL plays a pivotal role in European cybersecurity initiatives, often serving as a hub for discussions on digital policy and defense strategies within the European Union. Its central location facilitates international collaboration on these critical issues.

United States

The USA advocates for robust international cybersecurity norms and actively invests in advanced cyber defense capabilities.

Role in topic

The USA is a global leader in cybersecurity technology and policy, influencing international standards and often engaging in multilateral efforts to combat cyber threats. Its perspective is crucial for understanding global trends and strategic responses.

China

CHN emphasizes cyber sovereignty and the development of indigenous cybersecurity technologies, while facing accusations of state-sponsored cyber activities.

Role in topic

CHN is a significant actor in the global cyber landscape, both as a target of cyberattacks and as a source of advanced cyber capabilities. Its approach to internet governance and data security has broad international implications.

Russia

RUS prioritizes national security in cyberspace and is often implicated in sophisticated cyber operations targeting state and non-state actors.

Role in topic

RUS is a key player in the geopolitical dimensions of cybersecurity, with its actions and policies significantly shaping the international discourse on cyber warfare and digital espionage.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

First Committee (Disarmament & International Security)

Disarmament & International Security (GA First Committee)

The First Committee was established in 1945 as the General Assembly's principal forum for questions of disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace. For decades its agenda was anchored by Cold War nuclear arms control — the NPT (1968), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), and the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) — supplemented by regimes governing conventional weapons such as the CCW and the Arms Trade Treaty. Since the early 2010s, however, the committee has been increasingly seized by emerging-technology arms control, where existing treaty architecture is thin or absent. Three dossiers now dominate. Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) have been debated within the CCW Group of Governmental Experts since 2017, with a clear majority of states favoring a legally binding instrument requiring meaningful human control, while a smaller group of militarily advanced states prefers non-binding principles. State behavior in cyberspace is being negotiated through the Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs, which has produced consensus reports affirming that international law applies online but has not resolved how. In outer space, anti-satellite tests by the United States, Russia, China, and India, the militarization of low-Earth orbit, and the stalled Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) talks have revived calls to update the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. The committee currently operates against a backdrop of collapsing bilateral arms control between Washington and Moscow — including the suspension of New START obligations — and intensifying U.S.–China strategic competition, which complicates consensus even on procedural questions.

Key players

Second Committee (Economic & Financial)

The Second Committee handles the General Assembly's economic and financial agenda, covering macroeconomic policy, financing for development, sustainable development, globalization, and operational activities for development. Its work is shaped by the milestones of UN development diplomacy: the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the 2000 Millennium Declaration, the 2002 Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals. In recent years the committee's debates have been dominated by overlapping crises: post-COVID fiscal stress, food and energy price shocks following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and a worsening sovereign debt squeeze across low- and middle-income countries. The G20 Common Framework for debt treatment, launched in 2020, has produced only a handful of restructurings, prompting African, Caribbean, and Latin American states to press for a UN-led sovereign debt mechanism. Parallel disputes concern international tax cooperation — where the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, advanced largely by the African Group, competes with the OECD-led process — and reform of multilateral development banks. The committee is also a key venue for follow-up to the 2024 Pact for the Future and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), and increasingly addresses the economic dimensions of climate adaptation, loss and damage, and digital public infrastructure.

Key players

Novice General Assembly (GA) Committee

Novice General Assembly

The General Assembly, established under Chapter IV of the UN Charter in 1945, is the only UN organ in which all 193 member states are represented with one vote each. Unlike the Security Council, its resolutions are non-binding recommendations, but they carry significant political and normative weight, articulate global consensus, and have shaped instruments from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015) and the Pact for the Future (2024). A Novice GA committee typically tackles a broad, accessible topic that introduces delegates to the rhythms of multilateral negotiation: bloc politics among regional groups (African Group, GRULAC, EU, Arab Group, etc.), the procedural mechanics of moderated and unmoderated caucuses, and the drafting of working papers and resolutions. Common agenda items include international cooperation on emerging technologies, climate action, peaceful uses of outer space, global health equity, and the protection of civilians in armed conflict — all areas where the GA has been actively legislating in recent sessions. The committee operates against a backdrop of growing GA assertiveness in response to Security Council deadlock, including invocation of the 1950 Uniting for Peace resolution on Ukraine and Gaza, and an ongoing debate over revitalizing the General Assembly to make it more responsive to twenty-first-century challenges.

Key players

Human Rights Council (HRC)

The Human Rights Council was created by GA Resolution 60/251 in 2006, replacing the discredited Commission on Human Rights. Composed of 47 member states elected by the General Assembly for staggered three-year terms, it conducts the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of every UN member state on a roughly four-and-a-half-year cycle, appoints Special Procedures mandate-holders, and convenes commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions on situations of concern. The Council's agenda is sharply contested. Country mandates on Belarus, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, the DPRK, Russia, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory regularly split the membership, while thematic debates on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, business and human rights, and the death penalty produce shifting coalitions. Two technology-driven dossiers have moved to the center: the human rights implications of generative AI and algorithmic decision-making, following the 2024 OHCHR work on AI governance and B-Tech, and the operationalization of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment recognized in HRC Resolution 48/13 (2021) and GA Resolution 76/300 (2022), particularly for climate-displaced populations. Longstanding fault lines persist between states that prioritize civil and political rights and those that emphasize economic, social, and cultural rights or invoke non-interference in internal affairs, with intense contestation over sexual orientation and gender identity, religion, and the relationship between human rights and counter-terrorism.

Key players

Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO)

Executive Board of the World Health Organization

The WHO Executive Board, established under Articles 24–29 of the WHO Constitution (1948), comprises 34 members technically qualified in health, nominated by states elected by the World Health Assembly for three-year terms. The Board gives effect to WHA decisions, advises on policy, and prepares the Assembly's agenda, meeting twice a year in Geneva. The Board's agenda is currently dominated by the implementation of the WHO Pandemic Agreement adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2025 after three years of negotiation under the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body. Core disputes — pathogen access and benefit-sharing (the PABS system), technology transfer, equitable distribution of vaccines and therapeutics, and the relationship between the Agreement and the amended International Health Regulations (2024) — remain politically charged. Parallel work streams include accelerating progress on non-communicable diseases following the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting, addressing antimicrobial resistance, and sustaining health systems amid attacks on healthcare in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan. The Board also oversees WHO's financing model, where a 2022 reform raised assessed contributions to fund 50 percent of the core budget by 2030–31, and contends with the political fallout from U.S. signals about reduced engagement with the Organization.

Key players

Historical Security Council

The Security Council was established in 1945 under Chapter V of the UN Charter as the organ with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, with five permanent veto-wielding members — China (originally the Republic of China), France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States — and, after a 1965 amendment, ten elected members. Historical Security Council simulations freeze the Council at a specific moment of crisis, allowing delegates to navigate the information, alliances, and constraints of that period. Iconic settings include the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War, during which the Soviet boycott permitted Council authorization of UN action; the 1956 Suez Crisis, which catalyzed the Uniting for Peace mechanism and the first UN peacekeeping operation (UNEF); the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Council served as a stage for U.S.–Soviet brinkmanship; the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where UNAMIR's mandate and Council inaction remain searing precedents; and the 1999 Kosovo intervention, which raised enduring questions about humanitarian intervention without Council authorization. Whatever crisis is selected, the committee will confront the Council's structural features: the veto, the politics of P5 unanimity, the tension between sovereignty (Article 2(7)) and enforcement (Chapter VII), and the limits of peacekeeping. These dynamics established the precedents that shape the Council's contemporary handling of Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for BE-CYBER 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

US Job Openings at 6.7M

Trump's Economic Reset

Supreme Court's Voting Rights Impact on 2026

Mifepristone Ruling Sparks 2026 Political Tug

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Gender Dynamics Across Cultures

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Cross-Cultural Communication

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Belgium September 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

BE-CYBER 2026

Sep 22, 2026Wavre, BelgiumIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

First Committee (Disarmament & International Security)
Disarmament & International Security (GA First Committee)
Second Committee (Economic & Financial)
Second Committee (Economic & Financial)
Third Committee (Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian)
Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian & Cultural)
Novice General Assembly (GA) Committee
Novice General Assembly
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
Human Rights Council (HRC)
Human Rights Council (HRC)
Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO)
Executive Board of the World Health Organization
Historical Security Council
Historical Security Council

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Belgium

As the host nation, BEL is committed to fostering international cooperation in cybersecurity and strengthening its national cyber defenses.

Role in topic

United States

The USA advocates for robust international cybersecurity norms and actively invests in advanced cyber defense capabilities.

Role in topic

China

CHN emphasizes cyber sovereignty and the development of indigenous cybersecurity technologies, while facing accusations of state-sponsored cyber activities.

Role in topic

Russia

RUS prioritizes national security in cyberspace and is often implicated in sophisticated cyber operations targeting state and non-state actors.

Role in topic

RUS is a key player in the geopolitical dimensions of cybersecurity, with its actions and policies significantly shaping the international discourse on cyber warfare and digital espionage.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

First Committee (Disarmament & International Security)