This week, President Joe Biden hosted over 40 world leaders in a virtual climate summit on Earth Day, President Vladimir Putin gave his annual address amidst protests over the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter for the death of George Floyd. Read more below.
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Robert Blackwill, Philip Zelikow et al in a Hoover Institution discussion: “The United States, China, And Taiwan—A Strategy to Prevent War”
Chris Brose on the Reimaging Defence podcast
Nicholas Burns et al in a European Policy Centre discussion: “Stronger Together: A Strategy to Revitalize Transatlantic Power”
Tom Donilon on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria: “Tom Donilon on Afghanistan Withdrawal”
Michèle Flournoy in Foreign Affairs: “America’s Military Risks Losing Its Edge: How to Transform the Pentagon for a Competitive Era”
Michael Green moderated a CSIS keynote address by Prime Minister Suga: "My Vision for the Japan-U.S. Alliance"
David McCormick and Matthew Slaughter in Foreign Affairs: “Data Is Power: Washington Needs to Craft New Rules for the Digital Age”
Meghan O’Sullivan and Richard Haass in The Washington Post: “It’s Wrong to Pull Troops Out of Afghanistan. But We Can Minimize the Damage”
Jack Reed on WPRI News: “Sen. Reed on Afghanistan”
David Sanger on The Daily podcast: “A Difficult Diplomatic Triangle”
Philip Zelikow interviewed by UVA Today: “Q&A: Philip Zelikow, 9/11 Commission Leader, to Take Stock of Covid Lessons”
ASG Rising Leaders in the News
“We have little evidence that foreign threats systematically reduce domestic polarization in the American context…Claims that crisis events or emergent threats from rival powers will automatically bind the United States together should be met with a healthy dose of skepticism."
Read ASG Rising Leader Rachel Myrick’s paper “Do External Threats Unite or Divide? Security Crises, Rivalries, and Polarization in American Foreign Policy” in International Organization Journal.
“Federal laws can be a bit of a challenge for us in Michigan because we have a lot of waterways. We have 21 percent of the world's fresh water situated in our state."
ASG Rising Leader Mari Manoogian was a featured panelist in "State-to-State Dialogue: Climate Change and Energy Policy", a joint event hosted by the Aspen Institute Germany and the American Council on Germany.
Tweet of the Week
Upcoming Events
The Biden Administration's First 100 Days in Review
Friday, April 30th
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM ET
Featuring
Jake Sullivan
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Kathleen H. Hicks
Deputy Secretary of Defense
Stephen Beigun
Former Deputy Secretary of State
Thomas E. Donilon
Chairman, BlackRock Investment Institute and Former National Security Advisor
Jennifer Griffin
National Security Correspondent, Fox News
Helene Cooper
Pentagon Correspondent, The New York Times
Gerald F. Seib
Executive Washington Editor, The Wall Street Journal
Speaker
Christine Lagarde
President of the European Central Bank
In Conversation With
David Rubenstein
Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, The Carlyle Group
Introduced By
Nicholas Burns
Executive Director, Aspen Strategy Group & Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School
With Closing Remarks By
Melissa S. Kearney
Director, Aspen Economic Strategy Group & Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics, The University of Maryland
Presented in partnership with the Aspen Economic Strategy Group
Things to Know
Stay Informed with Important Analysis Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
George W. Bush in The Washington Post: “George W. Bush: Immigration Is a Defining Asset of the United States. Here’s How to Restore Confidence in Our System”
Silvia Amaro for CNBC: "European Central Bank Holds Fire Ahead of Crunch June Meeting"
Daniel Baer in Foreign Policy: "Don't Just Make Foreign Policy for Working Americans. Engage Them in It"
Anna Chernova, Zahra Ullah, and Laura Smith-Spark for CNN: "Protestors Across Russia Call for Alexey Navalny's Release on Same Day as Putin's Annual Address"
The Economist: "How Biden is Reshaping America's Global Role"
Timothy Puko and Andrew Restuccia in The Wall Street Journal: "At Earth Day Climate Summit, Biden Pushes for Sharp Cut to Greenhouse Gas Emissions"
Adam Taylor for The Washington Post: “Videos and Social Media are Challenging Police Impunity Around the World”
Dov Zakheim in The Hill: “Washington Can Prevent a Humanitarian Disaster After We Leave Afghanistan”
Book of the Week
By Elizabeth C. Economy
“In The Third Revolution, eminent China scholar Elizabeth C. Economy provides an incisive look at the transformative changes underway in China today. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has unleashed a powerful set of political and economic reforms: the centralization of power under Xi, himself, the expansion of the Communist Party's role in Chinese political, social, and economic life, and the construction of a virtual wall of regulations to control more closely the exchange of ideas and capital between China and the outside world. Beyond its borders, Beijing has recast itself as a great power, seeking to reclaim its past glory and to create a system of international norms that better serves its more ambitious geostrategic objectives. In so doing, the Chinese leadership is reversing the trends toward greater political and economic opening, as well as the low-profile foreign policy, that had been put in motion by Deng Xiaoping's ‘Second Revolution’ thirty years earlier.
Through a wide-ranging exploration of Xi Jinping's top political, economic, and foreign policy priorities-fighting corruption, managing the Internet, reforming the state-owned enterprise sector, improving the country's innovation capacity, enhancing air quality, and elevating China's presence on the global stage-Economy identifies the tensions, shortcomings, and successes of Xi's reform efforts over the course of his first five years in office. She also assesses their implications for the rest of the world, and provides recommendations for how the United States and others should navigate their relationship with this vast nation in the coming years.”
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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.
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