2025
Aspen Security Forum
July 15-18, 2025
Aspen, Colorado
2025
Aspen Security Forum
July 15-18, 2025
Aspen, Colorado
WELCOME MESSAGE
From Anja Manuel, Executive Director, Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum
Our mission is to address key national security challenges and promote peace
by convening decision-makers in resolutely non-partisan public and private forums.
2025 Aspen Security Forum
The Aspen Strategy Group will host the 2025 Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, CO from the evening of Tuesday, July 15 to midday Friday, July 18. Our flagship Forum will feature an array of decision-makers and thought leaders from Washington, DC and around the world.
Welcome Message from Anja Manuel
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPEN STRATEGY GROUP AND ASPEN SECURITY FORUM
Dear friends and colleagues,
The year 2025 has proven to be a time of profound change and transformation.
Wars continue to rage in Europe and the Middle East. Great powers continue to compete in technology and trade. Meanwhile, society and legal systems are racing to keep pace with artificial intelligence and other technologies, which are evolving at breakneck speed.
And yet, amid all this uncertainty, it’s worth remembering that our leaders—even with their sharp differences—have voiced a shared aspiration for peace.
President Trump said, “My preference will always be for peace and partnership, whenever those outcomes can be achieved. Always.”[1]
And as President Biden told the United Nations last fall: Our joint goal is to “end the conflicts that are raging today” and “to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart.”[2]
These shared hopes reflect something deeply human—a desire to reduce conflict, to build stability, and to leave a more stable, prosperous world.
But the tools we once relied on—strategic alliances, long-standing partnerships, institutional norms—may no longer function quite as they did decades ago. In our rapidly shifting global landscape, our task is not simply to respond as we always have, but to question assumptions that may no longer hold:
We assumed that economic interdependence would be the norm, and lead to less conflict.
We assumed that technology would always serve us, not challenge us.
We assumed that institutions built in a different era would endure unchanged.
At Aspen, we seek to approach global challenges with a beginner’s mind—open, humble, and ready to discover new solutions.
This summer, we will explore how releasing old assumptions can open the door to innovation, collaboration, and strategic recalibration.
Our founder Joe Nye—who sadly passed away this year—reminded us to retreat to nature to renew and invigorate our thinking. And so, we gather here once again, on this beautiful mountain, not only to assess risks, but to explore bold new approaches—clear-eyed, open-minded, and ready for the future.
Thank you for joining us.
See you in Aspen,
Anja Manuel
Executive Director
Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum
[1] “In Riyadh, President Trump Charts the Course for a Prosperous Future in the Middle East,” The White House, May 13, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/05/in-riyadh-president-trump-charts-the-course-for-a-prosperous-future-in-the-middle-east/.
[2] “Remarks by President Biden Before the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly,” The White House, September 24, 2024, https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/09/24/remarks-by-president-biden-before-the-79th-session-of-the-united-nations-general-assembly-new-york-ny/.
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