The Weekly Leaf
This week, Russia launched a new ballistic missile at Ukraine after releasing its new nuclear doctrine, a Chinese ship was suspected of severing undersea cables in the Baltic, Japan hosted the Five Eyes for the first time, COP29 concluded in Baku, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Read more below.
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This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Richard L. Armitage, and moderator Christopher B. Johnstone at the 21st CSIS/Nikkei Symposium
Stephen Biegun, Peter Berkowitz, Brian Cavanaugh, Dean Cheng, Matthew Zweig, Mark Montgomery, Rebeccah Heinrichs, and Daniel Runde for The Vandenberg Coalition and The McCain Institute: “A Conservative Strategy for Countering Russia”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed Matt Pottinger and Evan Medeiros for China Considered: “U.S.-China Policy in Trump 2.0”
Michael J. Green for Foreign Affairs: “How Trump Can Build on Biden’s Successes in Asia” David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “Europe Comes to Terms With the Trump Restoration”
Meghan O’Sullivan, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, and Ernest J. Moniz named co-chairs and Stephen Hadley, Sam Nunn, Susan Rice, and more named as members of a new Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation and U.S. National Security
David Petraeus interviewed by Jake Tapper for CNN: “Petraeus: Not Too Late for Ukraine to Use ATACMS in Russia”
David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes for The New York Times: “China’s Hacking Reached Deep Into U.S. Telecoms”
Tweet of the Week
Rising Leaders Program Highlights
Features from ASG Rising Leaders
Marcus Coleman (‘23) interviewed by Eric McNulty for the LeaderReadyCast
Liana Fix (‘23), Max Boot, Charles A. Kupchan, and moderator Elise Labott for the Council on Foreign Relations: “Update on the Russia-Ukraine War: Will U.S. Long-Range Missiles Change the Equation?”
Felicia Schwartz (‘24) and James Shotter for the Financial Times: “ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Max Bearak for The New York Times: “Climate Talks Teeter, With Rich and Poor Countries in a Tug of War”
Julian Borger and Andrew Roth for The Guardian: “ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for Alleged Gaza War Crimes”
Eliot Chen and Rachel Cheung for The Wire China: “Hong Kong’s Democracy Movement Receives Its Sentence”
Gabriel Dominguez for The Japan Times: “Japan Hosts Five Eyes Group Meeting for First Time”
Peter Fabricius for The Daily Maverick: “SADC Summit Commends Mozambique for ‘Holding Peaceful Elections’”
Farnaz Fassihi, Euan Ward, and Thomas Fuller for The New York Times: “U.S. Casts Sole Vote Against Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution”
Ben Hall for the Financial Times: “Vladimir Putin Climbs Escalatory Ladder With Missile Experiment”
Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron for WIRED: “Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking U.S. Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany”
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for The Wall Street Journal: “The DOGE Plan to Reform Government”
Lucas Myers for War on the Rocks: “China Is Off the Fence in Myanmar”
Shannon Tiezzi for The Diplomat: “Chinese Vessel Suspected of Damaging European Submarine Cables”
Macarena Vidal Liy for El País: “U.S. Recognizes Edmundo González as ‘President-Elect’ of Venezuela”
Damian Zane and Will Ross for the BBC: “Furious Row at UN as Russia Blocks Sudan Ceasefire Move”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the lessons from Ukraine, AI-enabled autonomous systems, deterrence, and more from the 2024 Aspen Security Forum.
The Future of Military Power
Chris Brose, Chief Strategy Officer, Anduril Industries; Former Staff Director, United States Senate Armed Services Committee
Mara Karlin, Professor, Johns Hopkins University-SAIS; Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution; Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, U.S. Department of Defense
Moderator: Nick Schifrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
Book of the Week
By Henry A. Kissinger, Craig Mundie, and Eric Schmidt
"In his final book, the late Henry Kissinger joins forces with two leading technologists to mount 'a profound exploration' (Walter Isaacson) of the epochal challenges and opportunities presented by the revolution in artificial intelligence: a breakthrough that dramatically empowers people in all walks of life while also raising urgent questions about the future of humanity.
As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen—usurping our power of independent judgment and action, testing our relationship with the divine, and perhaps even spurring a new phase in human evolution.
The last book of elder statesman Henry Kissinger, written with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt, Genesis charts a course between blind faith and unjustified fear as it outlines an effective strategy for navigating the age of AI."
Podcast of the Week
Edward Lucas, Lt Gen Ben Hodges, and host Manveen Rana for The Story podcast: “Putin's 'Nuclear Blackmail'”
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