The Weekly Leaf
This week, U.S. and British forces launched military strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice, and senior Chinese military officials visited the Pentagon for the first time in four years.
Read more below.
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This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Mark T. Esper interviewed by Poppy Harlow for CNN
Peter Feaver quoted by Joshua Keating for Vox: “Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Mysterious Absence, Explained”
Michael Froman interviewed Liu Jianchao for the Council on Foreign Relations: “The Future of China and China-U.S. Relations"
Susan Glasser interviewed Yaroslav Trofimov for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “Our Enemies Will Vanish: Book Talk with Yaroslav Trofimov”
Michael J. Green interviewed Joseph Chinyong Liow for The Asia Chessboard podcast: “Southeast Asia in a Shifting Global Order”
Kay Bailey Hutchison interviewed Bill Nelson for the LBJ Presidential Library
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “Can the Spread of War Be Stopped?"
Nicholas Kristof for The New York Times: "When Democracy Is a Threat"
Meghan O’Sullivan interviewed by David Ingles and Yvonne Man for Bloomberg: “Harvard’s O’Sullivan on Geopolitics”
David Petraeus interviewed by Christiane Amanpour for CNN: “Putin ‘Won’t Stop There’ if He Wins in Ukraine”
David Rubenstein interviewed Richard Haass for PBS: “History with David Rubenstein: Richard Haass”
David Sanger and Steven Erlanger for The New York Times: “From Lebanon to the Red Sea, a Broader Conflict With Iran Looms”
Dan Sullivan interviewed by Paul Gigot for Fox News: “Sen. Dan Sullivan on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Report”
Robert Zoellick interviewed by Akio Fujii for Nikkei Asia: “U.S. Must Keep Engaging With China, Ex-World Bank Chief Says”
Tweet of the Week
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Antony Blinken interviewed by Andrea Mitchell for NBC
Lara Bullens for France 24: "How Gabriel Attal Became France’s Youngest-Ever Prime Minister"
Alice Hancock for the Financial Times: “Charles Michel to Step Down Early as European Council President’
Mark Leonard for Foreign Affairs: “China’s Game in Gaza”
Gordon Lubold, Michael Gordon, and Benoit Faucon for The Wall Street Journal: “Russia Moves Forward With Plans to Buy Iranian Ballistic Missiles”
Timothy McLaughlin for The Atlantic: "China Won’t Leave Taiwan’s Election to the Taiwanese"
Paul McLeary for POLITICO: "Chinese Military Officials Visit Pentagon for First Time in 4 Years"
Shivshankar Menon for the Centre for Social and Economic Progress: “Diplomacy in a Changing World”
Ellen Mitchell for The Hill: "Pentagon Watchdog Says $1B in Military Aid for Ukraine Improperly Tracked"
Emily Rauhala and Kareem Fahim for The Washington Post: "South Africa Presses Genocide Case Against Israel at International Court"
Gonzalo Solano and Megan Janetsky for the AP: "Ecuador Hunkers Down for a Government War on Drug Gangs After Attack During Live TV Newscast"
Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, and Mohammed Ghobari for Reuters: "U.S. and Britain Strike Yemen in Reprisal for Houthi Attacks on Shipping"
From the Archives
Ahead of the upcoming Taiwanese election, revisit our conversation on the state of democracy around the world from the 2023 Aspen Security Forum.
María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, El Salvador
Mariano-Florentino 'Tino' Cuéllar, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Jane Harman, Chair, Commission on the National Defense Strategy, and Former Member of Congress
Moderator: Matthew Kaminski, Editor-in-Chief, POLITICO
Partner Content
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Book of the Week
By Yaroslav Trofimov
"Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war’s decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut—to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia, one of the world’s great military powers, in a modern-day battle of David and Goliath. Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to seesaw to this day. This is the story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people—people Trofimov knows very well...
This brutal, catastrophic struggle is unfolding on another continent, but the United States and its NATO allies have become deeply implicated. As the war drags on, it threatens to engulf the world. We cannot look away. At once heart-breaking and inspiring, Our Enemies Will Vanish is a riveting, vivid, and first-hand account of the Ukrainian refusal to surrender. It is the story of ordinary people fighting not just for their homes and their families but for justice and democracy itself."
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