The 2025 Aspen Security Forum
July 15-18 | Aspen, CO
The 2025 Aspen Security Forum continued yesterday in Aspen, CO! We are pleased to share some of the highlights from our second day below.
Tune in to today‘s sessions by joining our livestream!
Day Two Highlights
Fireside Chat with Minister Vivian Balakrishnan 
Vivian Balakrishnan
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Demetri Sevastopulo
Financial Times
“The preferred strategic model for all of us in Southeast Asia is to make sure that these superpowers, the United States and China, and the middle powers, including India, Australia, and the Middle East, have skin in the game and have a stake in our continued peace and prosperity. We do not want Southeast Asia to become again an arena for proxy wars.” – Vivian Balakrishnan
Minister Balakrishnan shared his perspective on Singapore’s strategic position in the evolving Indo-Pacific landscape, addressing its relations with the U.S. and China, its economic strategy, its role in ASEAN, and more.
Watch here.
Zero Gravity, High Stakes: The Future of Space
General Tim Ray
President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Executives for National Security; Former Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command
Nina Armagno
Chair, Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. Space Policy; Former Lieutenant General, U.S. Space Force
Jane Harman
Chair, Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. Space Policy; Former Congresswoman; Chair, Commission on the National Defense Strategy; Aspen Institute Trustee
Robert Lightfoot
President, Lockheed Martin Space
Moderator
Gordon Lubold
NBC News
“When you think about what we began to use space for decades ago, it was to allow terrestrial operations, operations on Earth…I think the fundamental shift was in 2015 when China decided that they could declare space a warfighting domain. When they did that, they actually changed the narrative.” – Robert Lightfoot
This panel focused on the intersection of space and national security, including the need to counter Russian and Chinese capabilities, threats to both commercial and military assets in space, and how to maintain our competitive edge.
Watch here.
Israel at a Crossroads
Amos Yadlin
President and Founder, MIND Israel; Former Chief, IDF Intelligence Directorate
Michael Herzog
Former Ambassador of Israel to the United States; Tisch Distinguished Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Brett McGurk
Venture Partner, Lux Capital; Former National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa
Dan Senor
Partner, Elliott Investment Management; Co-Author, THE GENIUS OF ISRAEL & START-UP NATION; Host, CALL ME BACK Podcast
Moderator
Mary Louise Kelly
NPR
“One of the challenges for Israel is their military was never designed to fight the kind of war it’s fighting in Gaza, for the length of time it is fighting…October will be two years, and Israel is still fighting this war.” – Dan Senor
The panel discussed the geopolitical implications of the October 7 attack on Israel, including the strength of the Israel-U.S. partnership, the weakening of Iran and its proxies, and the humanitarian challenges of the conflict.
Watch here.
Navigating Great Power Competition: Global POVs
Elbegdorj Tsakhia
Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Former President and Former Prime Minister of Mongolia
Claudia Ruiz Massieu
Congresswoman, Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
Former Foreign Minister of Mexico
Balázs Orbán
Political Director for the Prime Minister
Member of Parliament, Hungary
Hina Rabbani Khar
Former Foreign Minister of Pakistan
Chairperson of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee
Moderator
Jim Sciutto
CNN
“In the West right now, what we have is this conventional thinking which is based on exceptionalism…and there’s no introspection of how different the application of the rules-based order is…I think there’s a lot of room for introspection in terms of what has actually gone wrong, and much of that has been the lack of universal application of the same rules across the board.” – Hina Rabbani Khar
Leaders from Hungary, Pakistan, Mongolia, and Mexico shared their perspectives on great power competition, covering topics ranging from democratic values and human rights to American soft power and international institutions.
Watch here.
Cyber Intelligence: An Enabler of Security and Resilience
Johan Gerber
Executive Vice President, Head of Security Solutions, Mastercard
Rob Joyce
Founder, Joyce Cyber; Former Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator, U.S. National Security Council
Jenna Ben-Yehuda
Executive Vice President, Atlantic Council
Moderator
David Sanger
The New York Times
“We have, in the case of [Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon] digital explosives being strapped to not only electric grids, but pipelines and transportation and other critical infrastructure. Those are digital explosives being set and prepositioned. If that were done in the physical world, we wouldn’t have talked for a week, let alone a month or a year, and we would have used a lot of coercive tools.” – Rob Joyce
This panel discussed the intersection of cyber intelligence and national security, highlighting the ways cyber can be used as a deterrent capability, the role of AI in cybersecurity, and current vulnerabilities in our cyber infrastructure.
Watch here.
