Summary
Anna Manjuel opens the Aspen Security Forum, DC Edition, highlighting that it’s the eve of 2025 and a new U.S. administration. The gathering serves two purposes: to embrace the coming changes and to celebrate enduring traditions at the Aspen Institute. The speaker reflects on the year’s turbulence, with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific. The pace of technological change has accelerated, and the world faces heightened great power competition.
On the positive side, 99 countries held elections in the past year, with 1.8 billion people voting, leading to new governments and partnerships, and challenging old governing philosophies. Despite the upheaval, the forum emphasizes the values of the Aspen Strategy Group—bringing together people across political divides to listen and learn from one another, with a commitment to dialogue, civility, and broad freedom of expression.
The speaker stresses that thoughtful, bipartisan conversations are key to finding better solutions for the country and fostering global peace. The Aspen Strategy Group has been doing this for 40 years, and the speaker thanks the attendees for joining in this effort. Special gratitude is given to the sponsors—Google, McKinsey, Microsoft, the Walton Family Foundation, Amazon Web Services, the Financial Times, Lockheed Martin, the Rockefeller Foundation, American Airlines, and Intel—along with all the speakers, moderators, journalists, rising leaders, and the team that made the event possible.
