This week, world leaders took the stage at the World Economic Forum's Davos meeting, farmers in India stormed Delhi's Red Fort to protest laws they believe favor corporate farms, and President Biden signed sweeping executive orders to address climate change and other issues. Read more below.
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Zoë Baird on the Global Translations podcast: “Where Does Labor Go From Here?”
Sylvia Burwell in a CFR discussion: "Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Jane Harman in a Mount Vernon and Brookings Institution discussion
Anja Manuel in a Bloomberg Radio interview on U.S.-China relations
David McCormick in Bloomberg Businessweek: “Bridgewater’s CEO on Inequality, Uncertainty, and Polarization”
David Sanger and Anton Troianovski in The New York Times: “Biden and Putin Agree to Extend Nuclear Treaty"
Anne-Marie Slaughter and Emily Lawrence in Project Syndicate: “The U.S. and China Must Cooperate in Space”
Philip Zelikow on Lawfare: “A Practical Path to Condemn and Disqualify Donald Trump”
Robert Zoellick in a Bloomberg Opinion Q&A:” Biden, Diplomacy, and the U.S. Place in the World”
Tweet of the Week
Upcoming Events
The View from Bogotá:
A Live Conversation with the President of Colombia Iván Duque Márquez
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
9:00 a.m. ET
Speaker
Iván Duque Márquez
President of Colombia
Things to Know
Stay Informed with Important Analysis Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Aljazeera: "Colombia Court Charges Former FARC Commanders with War Crimes"
BBC News: “India Protest: Farmers Breach Delhi's Red Fort in Huge Tractor Rally”
Joe Biden in El Tiempo: "Reconstrucción de Alianza con Colombia Será Una de Mis Prioridades"
Henry Foy et al in Financial Times: “Davos Highlights: Putin Warns of ‘All Against All’ Fight If Global Development Is Neglected”
Steven Grattan for Aljazeera: "Four Years After FARC Peace Deal, Colombia Grapples with Violence"
David Ignatius in The Washington Post: “The Biden Administration’s Saudi Problem”
Laurel Miller in Foreign Affairs: “The Myth of a Responsible Withdrawal from Afghanistan”
NBC News: "Colombia's Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo Dies from Covid at Age 69"
Reuters: "International Community Must Aid Poor Nations to Secure Vaccines - Colombia's Duque"
Somini Sengupta in The New York Times: "How Biden's Climate Ambitions Could Shift America's Global Footprint"
The Wall Street Journal: “Xi Jinping Wows Them at Davos”
Olivia Waxman in TIME: “Why the U.S. Capitol Attack Makes Holocaust Remembrance Day More Important Than Ever”
Book of the Week
By Patrick Porter
“In an age of demagogues, hostile great powers, and trade wars, foreign policy traditionalists dream of restoring liberal international order. This order, they claim, ushered in seventy years of peace and prosperity and saw post-war America domesticate the world to its values.
The False Promise of Liberal Order exposes the flaws in this nostalgic vision. The world shaped by America came about as a result of coercion and, sometimes brutal, compromise. Liberal projects – to spread capitalist democracy – led inadvertently to illiberal results. To make peace, America made bargains with authoritarian forces. Even in the Pax Americana, the gentlest order yet, ordering was rough work. As its power grew, Washington came to believe that its order was exceptional and even permanent – a mentality that has led to spiraling deficits, permanent war, and Trump. Romanticizing the liberal order makes it harder to adjust to today’s global disorder. Only by confronting the false promise of liberal order and adapting to current realities can the United States survive as a constitutional republic in a plural world.”
Partner Events
A Conversation with Leaders Who Shaped History
Celebrating the launch of
Leadership in Action
An Animated Series
In recent months, leaders around the world have been forced to grapple with a series of threats to domestic and international stability. From the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic fallout to populism and escalating cyberattacks, the need for effective leadership at this moment is critical. But as dire as the situation seems today, we have been here before.
This webinar will take a look back at three crises that helped define geopolitics in the past quarter century from the perspective of those who shaped these historic events. This discussion will offer critical lessons to leaders seeking a roadmap for managing current crises and a model of what citizens should expect from diverse, skilled, and dedicated leaders in 2021 and beyond.
This program will begin with the premiere of the first animated short in a three-part series called Leadership in Action, produced by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Aspen Ministers Forum. The screening will be followed by a conversation and audience Q&A featuring:
Speakers
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
Former Secretary of State, The United States of America
MARINA KALJURAND
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Estonia
GEORGE PAPANDREOU
Former Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs, Greece
Moderated by
EDWARD LUCE
U.S. National Editor, The Financial Times
Thursday, February 4
1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
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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.