The Weekly Leaf
This week, the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack was marked globally by both memorials and protests, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, Southeast Asian leaders met in Laos for the 44th ASEAN Summit, the German economy was projected to shrink for the second consecutive year, and the President of Tunisia Kais Saied was reelected amid controversy.
Read more below.
New ASG Publication
Intelligent Defense:
Navigating National Security in the Age of AI
On October 16, the Aspen Strategy Group will release our annual collection of papers emanating from the 2024 ASG Workshop on the nexus of artificial intelligence and national security. Authored by our members and invited experts, this forward-looking compilation critically assesses AI’s risks and benefits for U.S. national security.
Contributors include Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Anja Manuel, Yoshua Bengio,
Kent Walker, Senator Chris Coons, Mark T. Esper, Jennifer Ewbank, General David Petraeus, David Ignatius, and more.
"As we consider the impacts of AI, our national security is at an inflection point. By harnessing AI, the United States will undoubtedly make great strides in cyber defense, intelligence, and military operations. But as we venture into these uncharted waters, the U.S. government must also set guardrails to address the unique security threats posed by AI. Our authors show that it is possible both to innovate and regulate responsibly in this area." – Anja Manuel, Executive Director, Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum
ASG Programming
Next week, we are pleased to host a reception in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation on our latest report "Fortifying America's Future: Pathways for Competitiveness." Limited places to attend available.
Tuesday, October 15
6:00 — 8:00 PM
Washington, DC
Featuring a panel discussion on the jobs of the future that are most critical to our national security with Courtney Kube, NBC News and leaders from OpenAI, IBM, the Walton Family Foundation, and more.
Please inquire about availability by emailing Emily Lawrence at emily.lawrence@aspeninstitute.org.
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. for Project Syndicate: “What Would Victory in Ukraine Look Like?”
Condoleezza Rice interviewed by Dana Perino for Fox News: “Condoleezza Rice Doubles Down on Iran Being a U.S. Adversary: ‘Plenty of Threats to Go Around’”
Anja Manuel, Emily Harding, Justin Crump, and Nigel Kim Darroch interviewed by Christian Fraser for BBC News
Chris Brose quoted by Patrick Tucker for Defense One: “New AI-Powered Strike Drone Shows How Quickly Battlefield Autonomy Is Evolving”
Chris Coons for U.S. News: “AI Deepfakes Threaten Americans and Our Election”
Mark T. Esper interviewed by Anderson Cooper for CNN: “‘A Very Significant Hit’: Ex-Defense Secretary on Israel’s Potential Retaliation Toward Iran”
David Ignatius, Josh Rogin, and Damir Marusic for The Washington Post: “Will Wider War in the Middle East Make America Weaker?”
Nicholas Kristof for The New York Times: “Biden Sought Peace But Facilitated War”
Meghan O’Sullivan moderated a discussion with Edward Djerejian, Gidi Grinstein, Karim Sadjadpour, and Omar Rahman at the Belfer Center: “The Risks of Further Escalation in the Middle East”
David Petraeus interviewed by Hadley Gamble for Al Arabiya: “Petraeus Cites ‘Worrisome’ Front Lines as Russia Makes Costly Gains in Ukraine”
David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt for The New York Times: “Biden and Netanyahu Speak for the First Time in Months as Mideast Crisis Deepens”
Lawrence H. Summers, David Deming, and Christopher Ong for the Aspen Economic Strategy Group: “Technological Disruption in the U.S. Labor Market"
Tweet of the Week
Rising Leaders Program Highlights
Features from ASG Rising Leaders
Ian Platz (‘23), Lauren Baillie, Ena Dion, Philippe Leroux-Martin, William B. Taylor, and Calin Trenkov-Wermuth for the U.S. Institute of Peace: “The Future of the Security Sector in Ukraine”
Helen Toner (‘21) interviewed by Eliot Chen for The Wire: “Helen Toner on Setting the Rules for AI”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Chietigj Bajpaee for Chatham House: “Why the U.S.–India Relationship Needs a Healthy Dose of Realism”
Piero Cingari for Euronews: Germany’s Economic Struggles Deepen: A Back-to-Back Recession Looms”
Mohamed Farid and Mohamed Maher for The National Interest: “Egypt in Somalia: Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick”
Brian Harding, Jason Tower, and Andrew Wells-Dang for the U.S. Institute of Peace: “Southeast Asian Nations Convene Amid Myanmar Crisis, South China Sea Tensions”
Raya Jalabi, Chloe Cornish, and Giuliana Ricozzi for the Financial Times: “Israeli Air Strikes on Central Beirut Kill 22”
Maham Javaid and Kim Bellware for The Washington Post: “Meteorologists Battle Flood of Misinformation as They Report on Milton”
Katrina Manson for Bloomberg: “NSA Investigating If Chinese Hackers Breached U.S. Telecoms”
Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr. for the Military Times: “To Deter Iran, U.S. Must Rethink Military Basing in the Middle East”
Christopher Sabatini and Ryan C. Berg for Foreign Affairs: “A Containment Strategy for Venezuela”
Summer Said, Nancy A. Youssef, and Omar Abdel-Baqui for The Wall Street Journal: “Iran’s Secret Warning to U.S. Allies: Don’t Help Israel, or You’re Next”
Special Competitive Studies Project: “Memo to the President on AI & Energy”
Michael R. Strain for the Aspen Economic Strategy Group and AEI: “Protectionism Is Failing and Wrongheaded: An Evaluation of the Post-2017 Shift Toward Trade Wars and Industrial Policy”
Taipei Times: “China Has ‘No Right to Represent Taiwan,’ Lai Says”
Vivian Yee for The New York Times: “Tunisia’s President Cruises to a Victory That Critics Say He Engineered”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and arms control from the 2020 Aspen Security Forum.
Jerry Brown, Executive Chairman, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Rachel Bronson, CEO & President, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Book of the Week
Edited by Michael D. Gordin and G. John Ikenberry
"On August 6, 1945, in the waning days of World War II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The city’s destruction stands as a powerful symbol of nuclear annihilation, but it has also shaped how we think about war and peace, the past and the present, and science and ethics. The Age of Hiroshima traces these complex legacies, exploring how the meanings of Hiroshima have reverberated across the decades and around the world.
Michael D. Gordin and G. John Ikenberry bring together leading scholars from disciplines ranging from international relations and political theory to cultural history and science and technology studies, who together provide new perspectives on Hiroshima as both a historical event and a cultural phenomenon. As an event, Hiroshima emerges in the flow of decisions and hard choices surrounding the bombing and its aftermath. As a phenomenon, it marked a revolution in science, politics, and the human imagination—the end of one age and the dawn of another.
The Age of Hiroshima reveals how the bombing of Hiroshima gave rise to new conceptions of our world and its precarious interconnectedness, and how we continue to live in its dangerous shadow today."
Podcast of the Week
“Israel Says It Will Retaliate Against Iran - What to Expect”
Join Our Team
Brent Scowcroft Award Fellowship
The ASG launched the Brent Scowcroft Award Fellowship (BSAF), a paid, temporary, and full-time fellowship program, in recognition of ASG Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft’s long-time dedication to the group, as well as his legacy of distinguished public service. Now in its 20th year, the six-month fellowship is designed to provide an important professional stepping-stone for recent graduates with a keen interest in foreign policy and national security by way of direct exposure to the types of critical, thoughtful, and bipartisan discussions that characterize the ASG’s dialogues. Scowcroft Fellows are integral members of our team and their work contributes across all of our programs and initiatives at the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum.
Learn more about the role and apply here.
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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.