Stephen Hadley, Founding Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC; Former U.S. National Security Advisor
Jane Harman, Chair, Commission on the National Defense Strategy; Former Member of Congress
Keoki Jackson, Senior Vice President & General Manager, MITRE National Security
Susan Rice, Former U.S. National Security Advisor
Moderator: Susan Glasser, Staff Writer and Columnist, The New Yorker
“China will be a big challenge for any future administration. But we need to recognize that it's not just China. It's China with Iran and Russia and North Korea in a sort of axis of authoritarianism and we can't effectively manage the competition with China while handing Ukraine on a silver platter to Russia.”
— Susan Rice
Vivek Ramaswamy, Co-Lead, U.S. Department of Government Efficiency; New York Times Bestselling Author; Former 2024 Republican U.S. Presidential Candidate
Moderator: Mike Allen, Co-Founder, Axios
“If you asked George Washington and Alexander Hamilton… is this federal government recognizable to the republic they set into motion, I think they would tell you this is unrecognizable, that it's a technocracy disguised as a democracy. And I think if we restore the federal government to a size that would make our founders proud then I believe that our best days as a country are still going to be ahead of us.”
— Vivek Ramaswamy
Clément Beaune, Former Minister of State for European Affairs, France
Enrique Mora Benavente, Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs/Political Director, European External Action Service
Kajsa Ollongren, Former Minister of Defense; Former Deputy Prime Minister, The Netherlands
Jens Plötner, Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to the Chancellor, Germany
Moderator: Peter Spiegel, U.S. Managing Editor, Financial Times
“This commission has set two priorities: first, economic security; second, defense... we are facing Russia in Ukraine and it's an existential threat. If somebody else diminished the contributions, we will be obliged to increase the contribution. At the end of the day, it's member states. They have different problems but the ultimate will is clear when they face the threat."
— Deputy Secretary-General Enrique Mora Benavente
Kurt Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State
Moderator: Andrea Mitchell, Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News
“The two most important enabling forces on the battlefield in Ukraine have been first, the Chinese support for the defense industrial base in Russia, which has been sustained and significant over years, and now the provision of troops and armaments to Russia from North Korea. You could make an argument that the most decisive actors currently on the battlefield are Indo-Pacific actors, North Korea and China, affecting what's taking place on the ground in Ukraine and that's something that we have to be very concerned by."
— Deputy Secretary Kurt Campbell
Country Spotlight: Sudan
“[In Sudan], there's a humanitarian crisis, but there is also a crisis of getting these two generals to the table to have a ceasefire and to negotiate a way back to democratic rule. There is the Jeddah Declaration that should be one that we all get behind to try to get implemented, but very difficult at this point in time. Hopefully, we will see more from the UN in terms of our Security Council to try to make this work.”
— Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed
“I think it's pretty clear that the UAE has been transferring weapons to the RSF and making a really bad situation even worse. The United States already said that the RSF is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and so it's my view that if we want to try to address the humanitarian situation in Sudan, we should use our available leverage to accomplish our goals. The UAE is an important partner but I do not support transferring more weapons to the UAE so long as we believe that they are sending weapons to the RSF.”
— Senator Chris Van Hollen
Alberto Alberto, Senior Policy Advisor, CHIPS National Semiconductor Technology Center, U.S. Department of Commerce
Grant Cuprak, Defense Strategist
Matthew Hauwiller, Senior Engineer, Seagate Technology
Tina Huang, Wadhwani AI Center Adjunct Fellow, CSIS
Rahaf Safi, Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Moderator: Niamh King, Director, Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum
Read “On the Rise: Perspectives on Foreign Policy,” a collection of policy papers by the Rising Leaders Class of 2024 here.
Applications for the Class of 2025 close at 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, December 8. Apply here!
Aspen Strategy Group Programming
This week, the Aspen Strategy Group was pleased to host a Congressional lunch on the future of AI and national security with Anja Manuel, David Ignatius, and Jennifer Ewbank. The speakers shared their actionable insights and recommendations from Intelligent Defense: Navigating National Security in the Age of AI, a series of original papers that came out of the ASG Summer Workshop, to help decision-makers navigate this novel technology.
We were also delighted to have ASG Executive Director Anja Manuel and our Class of 2024 Rising Leaders join Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown, Jr. at the Pentagon for a private conversation on leadership and national security.
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As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Aspen Institute is nonpartisan and does not endorse, support, or oppose political candidates or parties. Further, the views and opinions of our guests and speakers do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.
