The Weekly Leaf
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz engaged in talks with Ukrainian representatives in Jeddah, sectarian violence claimed at least 110 lives in Syria, the center-right Demokraatit party won the Greenlandic general election, and the European Union and Canada retaliated against U.S. tariffs.
Read more below.
Rising Leaders Class of 2025 Kick-Off
The Aspen Strategy Group hosted the Rising Leaders Program Class of 2025 for their kick-off event in Washington this week. Over the course of three days, the group participated in the Gildenhorn Rising Leaders Aspen Seminar, attended a reception and discussion hosted by Deputy Head of Mission Jason Robertson with a guest appearance and comments from Ambassador Kevin Rudd at the Embassy of Australia, and took part in roundtable discussions with ASG Co-Chair and former U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Nicholas Burns and Aspen Institute President Dan Porterfield.
The ASG Rising Leaders Program brings together a cohort of young professionals to contribute to the conversation on critical foreign policy issues while honing their leadership skills. Over the course of a year, participants have the unique opportunity to learn from key decisionmakers—and each other—under the aegis of the ASG before joining a lifetime network of alumni.
Read more about the program and this year’s cohort here.
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
R. Nicholas Burns quoted by David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “Power, Money, Territory: How Trump Shook the World in 50 Days”
Condoleezza Rice interviewed by Mark Labberton for Comment: “American Foreign Policy and Human Dignity”
Chris Coons interviewed by Michel Martin for NPR: “Why Sen. Chris Coons Is Voting ‘No’ on Spending Bill That Would Stop a Government Shutdown”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed Christopher Walker for the China Considered podcast: “China, the U.S., and the Future of Democracy”
Michael Froman quoted by David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “Trump’s Big Bet: Americans Will Tolerate Economic Downturn to Restore Manufacturing”
Susan B. Glasser for The New Yorker: “Uncertainty Is Trump’s Brand. But What if He Already Told Us Exactly What He’s Going to Do?”
Michael Green quoted by Phillip Coorey and Andrew Tillett for The Australian Financial Review: “PM Uses Critical Minerals as Bargaining Chip in Trump Tariff War”
Jane Harman and Nina Armagno joined James M. Lindsay for CFR’s The President’s Inbox podcast: “U.S. Space Policy, With Nina Armagno and Jane Harman”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “In Trump’s New World Order, Strongmen Dominate and Might Makes Right”
Nicholas Kristof for The New York Times: “The Thing That Could Be Trump’s Undoing”
Joseph S. Nye for the Financial Times: “Trump and the End of American Soft Power”
Susan Rice interviewed by Wolf Blitzer for CNN: “Democrats Should Not ‘Rubber-Stamp’ ‘Crazy’ Government Funding Bill”
Lawrence H. Summers and Elizabeth Economy joined David Westin for Bloomberg’s Wall Street Week: “China’s Economic Challenges With Lawrence H. Summers”
Tweet of the Week
Rising Leaders Program Highlights
Features from ASG Rising Leaders
Lauren Dickey (‘22), Benjamin Charlton, Jenny Town, and Gregory Poling for War on the Rocks: “In Brief: Asian Allies Adjust Security Policies in Response to Trump Administration”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Dean Ball for Hyperdimensional: “Why Manus Matters”
Daniel Byman and Seth G. Jones for Foreign Affairs: “How to Toughen Up Taiwan”
The Economist: “The Global Importance of Rodrigo Duterte’s Arrest”
David Gritten and Lina Sinjab for BBC News: “Kurdish-led SDF Agrees to Integrate With Syrian Government Forces”
Vjosa Isai for The New York Times: “Canada Has a New Prime Minister With a Very Hard First Assignment”
Rishi Iyengar for Foreign Policy: “India Opens Up for Trump’s Tech Backers”
Haq Nawaz Khan, Rick Noack, and Shaiq Hussain for The Washington Post: “Pakistan’s Security Crisis Deepens as Train Hijacking Ends in Bloodshed”
Jonathan Lemire for The Atlantic: “Another Upside-Down Day of Trump Diplomacy”
Jaroslav Lukiv and Paul Kirby for BBC News: “Greenland's Opposition Wins Election Dominated by Independence and Trump”
Donato Paolo Mancini, Brian Platt, Samy Adghirni, Iain Marlow, and Arne Delfs for Bloomberg: “G-7 Nixes ‘Two-State Solution’ to Push Through Communique”
Summer Said, Michael R. Gordon, and Dov Lieber for The Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Talks With Hamas Were a One-Off, Says Trump Administration”
Aime Williams, Barbara Moens, and Andy Bounds for the Financial Times: “EU and Canada Retaliate After Donald Trump’s Metals Tariffs Take Effect”
Dov S. Zakheim for The Hill: “Trump, Rubio and Zelensky Have Just Boxed Putin In”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation about space security and strategy from the 2024 Aspen Security Forum.
Lt. Gen. Jeff Kruse, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency
Robert Lightfoot, President, Lockheed Martin Space; Former Associate Administrator, NASA
Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander, U.S. Space Command
Moderator: Loren Grush, Space Reporter, Bloomberg
Book of the Week
By Edward Fishman
“In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold history of the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy, in which America renounced the gospel of globalization and waged a new kind of economic war. As Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Ayatollah Khamenei wreaked havoc on the world stage, mavericks within the U.S. government built a fearsome new arsenal of economic weapons, exploiting America’s dominance in global finance and technology. Successive U.S. presidents have relied on these unconventional weapons to address the most pressing national-security threats, for good and for ill.
Chokepoints provides a thrilling account of one of the most critical geopolitical developments of our time, demystifying the complex strategies the U.S. government uses to harness the power of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Big Oil against America’s enemies.”
Podcast of the Week
George Mhango and Moses Mkandawire join Eddy Micah Jr. on the DW AfricaLink podcast: “Mozambique Unrest: Thousands Seek Return From Malawi”
Join Our Team!
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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.
