The Weekly Leaf
This week, President Biden hosted a state visit for Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Beijing and met with President of China Xi Jinping and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and the UN announced $1.5 billion in pledged aid to Sudan from international donors.
Read more below.
More speakers to be announced next week!
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from the Aspen Strategy Group Members
Chris Coons and Todd Young for The Messenger: “Time To Fight Russia and China’s Economic Coercion”
Mark Esper interviewed by Greta Van Susteren for Newsmax: “Former Defense Secretary: I’m Concerned We Will Take the Heat Off China”
Susan Glasser for The New Yorker: "What Joe Biden Didn't Say to Narendra Modi"
Michael Green and Bridi Rice interviewed by Jared Mondschein for the USSC Briefing Room podcast: “The Sunnylands Initiative and the Battle for Democracy in the Indo-Pacific”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “The U.S. and China Are Rivals – But They Can Talk Like Adults”
Nicholas Kristof, Lucy King, and Jonah Kessel for The New York Times: “One Man’s Inspiring Journey to Lift His Country Out of Poverty”
Meghan O’Sullivan, Jason Bordoff, Robert Johnston, and Cina Vazir published a report for The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program: “A Critical Minerals Policy for the United States”
David Petraeus interviewed by Ken Bombace and Tom Evans for The Captain's Brief
Condoleezza Rice interviewed by Seana Smith at the KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit: “Condoleezza Rice on China: We Have to Recognize That This Is a Significant Rivalry”
David Rubenstein interviewed by Neil Cavuto for Fox Business: “We Don’t Know Who’s Going to Lose, Gain Jobs as a Result of AI”
David Sanger interviewed Vivian Balakrishnan for the Council on Foreign Relations: “A Conversation With Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan of Singapore”
Lawrence Summers interviewed by Laurence Parisot at the Viva Technology Conference
Philip Zelikow on a panel for the World Refugee and Migration Council: “Forfeiting Russia’s Billions to Rebuild Ukraine”
Rising Leaders in the News
Geo Saba ('22), Dmitri Alperovitch, Ann Kowalewski, and Kevin Baron for the Defense One Tech Summit: “Mad About China”
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Liana Fix ('23) and Caroline Kapp for the Council on Foreign Relations: "The Dangers of Democratic Backsliding in Georgia"
Tweet of the Week
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Ylli Bajraktari and Samir Saran for Foreign Policy: “India and the U.S. Can Together Make Tech More Accessible to All”
Julie Chang, Zoe Thomas, and Kim Mackrael for The Wall Street Journal: "The EU’s AI Act, Explained"
Cristina Gallardo for POLITICO: "UK ‘Very Supportive’ of Fast-Track NATO Plan for Ukraine"
Rose Gottemoeller for Financial Times: “The West Must Act Now to Break Russia’s Nuclear Fever”
Ellen Knickmeyer and Cara Anna for the AP: "Once Starved by War, Millions of Ethiopians go Hungry Again as U.S., UN Pause Aid After Massive Theft"
Mark Leonard for Foreign Affairs: "China Is Ready for a World of Disorder"
Henry Mance for the Financial Times: "Mustafa Nayyem of Ukraine’s Reconstruction Agency: ‘We Have Great Goals, We Will Achieve Them’"
Andreas Noll for DW News: "Lula: The EU's Uncomfortable Preferred Partner"
Nirupama Rao interviewed by Haslinda Amin and Rishaad Salamat for Bloomberg: “Former Indian Diplomat Rao on Modi’s U.S. Visit”
Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Emma Farge, and Khalid Abdelaziz for Reuters: "International Donors Pledge $1.5 Billion in Sudan Aid"
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation between Robert Gates and Jane Harman about the evolving geopolitical landscape from the 2022 Aspen Security Forum.
Robert Gates, 22nd Secretary, U.S. Department of Defense
Jane Harman, Distinguished Fellow and President Emerita, Wilson Center
Book of the Week
By Francis Fukuyama
“Classical liberalism is in a state of crisis. Developed in the wake of Europe’s wars over religion and nationalism, liberalism is a system for governing diverse societies, which is grounded in fundamental principles of equality and the rule of law. It emphasizes the rights of individuals to pursue their own forms of happiness free from encroachment by government.
It's no secret that liberalism didn't always live up to its own ideals. In America, many people were denied equality before the law. Who counted as full human beings worthy of universal rights was contested for centuries, and only recently has this circle expanded to include women, African Americans, LGBTQ+ people, and others. Conservatives complain that liberalism empties the common life of meaning. As the renowned political philosopher Francis Fukuyama shows in Liberalism and Its Discontents, the principles of liberalism have also, in recent decades, been pushed to new extremes by both the right and the left: neoliberals made a cult of economic freedom, and progressives focused on identity over human universality as central to their political vision. The result, Fukuyama argues, has been a fracturing of our civil society and an increasing peril to our democracy.”
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