This week, President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping met for a virtual summit, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill was signed into law, and the migrant crisis at the border between Belarus and Poland escalated. Read more below.
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This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Peter Feaver interviewed General Mark Milley at Duke University
David Ignatius in The Washington Post: “A Great-Power Game Is Already Underway in Space”
Anja Manuel participated in an Asia Society Australia discussion: "Semiconductors: Competition and Conflict"
David McCormick and Marillyn Hewson co-chaired a Reagan Institute report: "A Manufacturing Renaissance: Bolstering U.S. Production for National Security and Economic Prosperity"
Sam Nunn and Ernest Moniz in The Washington Post: "Biden Should Do More to Prevent the Accidental Launch of Nuclear Weapons. Here’s How."
Joseph Nye in The Korea Times: “American Democracy and Soft Power"
Anne-Marie Slaughter in The New York Times: "It’s Time to Get Honest About the Biden Doctrine"
Senator Dan Sullivan, Senator Kevin Cramer, and Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced a new climate bill: “American Energy, Jobs, and Climate Plan”
Lawrence Summers in The Washington Post: "On Inflation, It’s Past Time for Team ‘Transitory’ to Stand Down"
Philip Zelikow in Foreign Affairs: "The Wars Within Islam Are Not Over"
Rising Leaders in the News
Congratulations to ASG Rising Leader and Michigan State Representative Mari Manoogian for being named a finalist in NewDEAL Leaders’ 2021 Ideas Challenge, for her Michigan Green Government Fund and Standards Act, aimed at decreasing emissions in the state.
“[P]ublic diplomacy can be used to overcome bureaucratic deadlock that constrains the ability of officials to pursue coercive private diplomacy around human rights. A strong, public-facing campaign elevates human rights issues above competing equities, providing opportunities for entrepreneurial policymakers to advance these issues through the foreign policy bureaucracy.”
Read ASG Rising Leader Rachel Myrick’s new piece “Making Sense of Human Rights Diplomacy: Evidence from a U.S. Campaign to Free Political Prisoners” coauthored with Jeremy M. Weinstein in International Organization.
Tweet of the Week
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Anne Applebaum for The Atlantic: "Autocracy Is Winning"
Ian Bremmer for Foreign Affairs: “How Big Tech Will Reshape the Global Order”
Seung Min Kim, et al. for The Washington Post: “In Hours-Long Virtual Meeting, Biden and Xi Manage Strained U.S.-China Ties”
Richard Pérez-Peña for The New York Times: “The Poland Belarus Border Crisis, Explained”
Jacob Pramuk for CNBC: “Biden Signs $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill into Law, Unlocking Funds for Transportation, Broadband, Utilities”
Peter Singer and Matt Brazil in Defense One: “China Locks Down Its History, to Its Peril and the World’s”
Book of the Week
By Rush Doshi
"In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking readers behind the Party's closed doors, he uncovers Beijing's long, methodical game to displace America from its hegemonic position in both the East Asia regional and global orders through three sequential 'strategies of displacement.' Beginning in the 1980s, China focused for two decades on 'hiding capabilities and biding time.' After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it became more assertive regionally, following a policy of 'actively accomplishing something.' Finally, in the aftermath populist elections of 2016, China shifted to an even more aggressive strategy for undermining U.S. hegemony, adopting the phrase 'great changes unseen in a century.'
After charting how China's long game has evolved, Doshi offers a comprehensive yet asymmetric plan for an effective U.S. response. Ironically, his proposed approach takes a page from Beijing's own strategic playbook to undermine China's ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for-dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan."
In Case You Missed It
The 2021 Aspen Security Forum featured discussions on the most pressing foreign policy and national security issues facing the U.S. from preserving America's technological edge and combatting climate change to building resilient global supply chains and ensuring the health of democracy at home and abroad.
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