The Weekly Leaf
This week, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 3,000; over 70 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Mali's capital; the Federal Reserve cut interest rates; and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a plan for a €35 billion EU loan to Ukraine.
Read more below.
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Chris Coons interviewed by Pamela Brown for CNN: “Too Many Close Calls of Violence in U.S. Politics”
Mark T. Esper for Military Times: “America’s Future Advantage Depends on Quick Adoption of Advanced Tech”
Peter Feaver for Foreign Policy: “Stop Politicizing the Military”
Michèle Flournoy quoted by Andrew Tillett for The Australian Financial Review: “Kamala Harris’ Potential Defence Chief Backs Labor Supercomputer Deal”
Michael J. Green and Jude Blanchette interviewed David Capie for the Asia Chessboard podcast: “Kiwi Crossroads: Navigating New Zealand’s Strategic Landscape”
Jane Harman and Eric S. Edelman for Foreign Policy: “A Course Correction on National Security”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “The Ominous Implications of the Pager Attack Against Hezbollah”
Nicholas Kristof for The New York Times: “I Just Went to Darfur. Here Is What Shattered Me.”
David Petraeus and Andy Yakulis for The Wall Street Journal: "Ukraine’s Lessons for the Pentagon"
Penny Pritzker quoted by Jason Bruder for the Center for European Policy Analysis: "One Year In: The U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery"
David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “A New Era in Sabotage: Turning Ordinary Devices Into Grenades, on a Mass Scale”
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Richard Gowan, Stewart Patrick, and Minh-Thu Pham at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “The UN Summit of the Future: What to Expect”
Tweet of the Week
Rising Leaders Program Highlights
Features from ASG Rising Leaders
Liana Fix (‘23), Matthias Matthijs, Constanze Stelzenmüller, Tara Varma, and moderator Michael Birnbaum at the Brookings Institution: “Election ‘24: What’s at Stake for U.S.-European Relations?”
Ian Platz (‘23) for Inkstick: “It’s Time for NATO to Prioritize Reducing Civilian Harm”
Helen Toner (‘21), Margaret Mitchell, William Saunders, and David Evan Harris testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law: “Oversight of AI: Insiders’ Perspectives”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Rumman Chowdhury for Foreign Policy: “What the Global AI Governance Conversation Misses”
The Economist: “A UN Vote on Palestine Underlines America’s Weakening Clout”
Paul Hannon for The Wall Street Journal: “The Fed Isn’t First to Cut Rates, but It Is the Signal Other Central Banks Want”
The Guardian: “Venezuela Opposition Leader Says He Was Forced to Sign Letter Accepting Maduro Victory”
Joseph Menn and Ellen Nakashima for The Washington Post: “U.S. and Allies Seize Control of Massive Chinese Tech Spying Network”
Elian Peltier and Christiaan Triebert for The New York Times: “Assault on Mali’s Capital Killed 50 or More, but Leaders Say Little”
Costas Pitas and Kanishka Singh for Reuters: “U.S. Says Iran Emailed Stolen Trump Campaign Material to Biden Camp”
Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Andriy Yermak for Project Syndicate: “Achieving Peace Through Strength in Ukraine”
Renata Segura and Diego Da Rin for Foreign Affairs: “Haiti’s Window of Opportunity”
Jens Stoltenberg interviewed by Ravi Agrawal for FP Live: “NATO’s Future”
Paola Tamma, Henry Foy, and Christopher Miller for the Financial Times: “Ursula von der Leyen Announces €35bn EU Loan to Ukraine”
Marites Dañguilan Vitug for Foreign Affairs: “America and the Philippines Should Call China’s Bluff”
Featured Partner Event
Revisit conversations on today's most pressing cyber issues from our colleagues at Aspen Digital’s 2024 Aspen Cyber Summit, featuring speakers such as FBI Director Christopher Wray, UK National Cyber Security Centre (GCHQ) CEO Felicity Oswald, Microsoft President Brad Smith, National Cyber Director Harry Coker, Deputy Attorney
General Lisa Monaco, and more.
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on "Team Democracy," China's Belt and Road Initiative, and economic security and national security in the Western Hemisphere from
General Laura Richardson, Commander, U.S. Southern Command
Moderator: Dafna Linzer, Executive Vice President and Editorial Director, U.S. News and World Report
Book of the Week
By Marietje Schaake
“Over the past decades, under the cover of ‘innovation,’ technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves….This new reality—where unregulated technology has become a forceful instrument for autocrats around the world—is terrible news for democracies and citizens.
In The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake offers a behind-the-scenes account of how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies—from social media to artificial intelligence—have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines game-changing solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can—and must—resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world.
Drawing on her experiences in the halls of the European Parliament and among Silicon Valley insiders, Schaake offers a frightening look at our modern tech-obsessed world—and a clear-eyed view of how democracies can build a better future before it is too late.”
Podcast of the Week
The Rachman Review: “Does the UN Still Matter? With António Guterres"
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