Rewriting the Rules: How Cyber Threats, the Race for AI Dominance, and Today's Wars Are Reshaping Geopolitics and Society

Rewriting the Rules: How Cyber Threats, the Race for AI Dominance, and Today's Wars 

Are Reshaping Geopolitics and Society 

Please join NZZ journalist Marie-Astrid Langer in conversation with Thomas Süssli, former Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces.

Thomas Süssli led the Swiss Armed Forces as Chief of the Army from 2020 to 2025. In this role, he oversaw the strategic direction and operational readiness of Switzerland’s military. From the outset, he championed modernization, placing particular emphasis on cyber defense, digital transformation, and the integration of new technologies to ensure the armed forces remain equipped for today’s challenges and those of the future.

Süssli’s path to the top military post reflects both international service and broad professional experience. After serving as an officer and Laboratory Leader with the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia in the late 1980s, he built a successful career in banking and IT, holding senior positions at UBS, Vontobel, and Credit Suisse. In 2015, he joined the professional officer corps of the Swiss Armed Forces and rose quickly through the ranks, first as Commander of Logistics Brigade 1 and later as head of the Command Support Base.

In early 2025, Süssli announced his decision to step down at the end of the year. His tenure as Chief of the Armed Forces has been defined by his commitment to preparing Switzerland’s military for an increasingly complex security environment and by his focus on building resilience across both traditional defense and emerging domains.

Marie-Astrid Langer is the US-foreign correspondent in Silicon Valley, covering technology and society since 2018. Born in Zweibrücken, Germany, in 1985, she spent a high school-year in Providence, Rhode Island, and studied International Business Administration in Tübingen and Santiago de Chile. Parallel to her college studies, she completed a fellowship by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for young journalists and completed internships at ZDF, UBS, the German Embassy in Singapore and the business and foreign affairs department of ‘Der Spiegel’. After graduating with an MBA, she attended Henri-Nannen-Journalism school in Hamburg.

Since 2011, Langer has worked for the NZZ, first for the business desk and then the foreign affairs desk. In 2015, she was the Arthur F. Burns Fellow at the »Wall Street Journal» in San Francisco. In 2021, her first book “Kamala Harris: A Portrait” about the Vice President was published. Langer has been awarded numerous awards for her work.