The Weekly Leaf
This week, talks broke down between President Trump and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Bundestag election took place in Germany, President of France Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister of the UK Keir Starmer traveled to Washington, and Austria formed a new “candy coalition” government.
Read more below.
This Week's Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Chris Coons for Fox News: “Trump's Inflationary Policies Making America Expensive Again”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed Leland Miller for the China Considered podcast: “Beyond the Data: China's Economy with Leland Miller”
Peter Feaver quoted by Joshua Keating for Vox News: “What Trump’s Military Purge Was Really About”
Susan Glasser, Evan Osnos, Jane Mayer, and Larry Diamond for The Political Scene podcast: “What Stops Democracy From Backsliding?”
Michael J. Green for the United States Studies Centre: “USSC CEO on Five Key Takeaways From the Early Days of the Trump Administration”
Kay Bailey Hutchison interviewed by Guy Johnson for Bloomberg Talks
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “There’s a Story in Each Shard of the Shattered USAID”
Nicholas Kristof for The New York Times: “Join My Bewildered Liberals Book Club”
Dina Powell McCormick and Dave McCormick interviewed by Sean Hannity for Fox News: “Sen. Dave McCormick and Dina Powell McCormick Reflect on Mentorship With New Book”
Meghan O’Sullivan interviewed by Becky Quick for CNBC: “German Election Is 'A Step in the Direction to the Right' for the Electorate”
William J. Perry, Chuck Hagel, Lloyd J. Austin III, Leon E. Panetta, and James N. Mattis released a letter: “Appeal to the Congress From Former Secretaries of Defense”
Jack Reed for The Washington Post: “Firing Military Officers for Perceived Disloyalty Endangers the Nation”
David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “Trump Says Ukraine Should Look to Europe for Any Security Guarantees”
Susan C. Schwab and Rob Atkinson interviewed by Stan McCoy for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation: “The Winds of War, With Susan C. Schwab and Rob Atkinson”
Dan Sullivan and Jack Reed quoted by Carla Babb for Voice of America: “Nominee for No. 2 Spot at Pentagon Warns China 'Incredibly Determined' to Surpass U.S.”
Lawrence Summers interviewed by David Westin for Bloomberg: “Summers Says U.S. Should Not Take Share of Ukraine's Natural Resources”
Tweet of the Week
Rising Leaders Program Highlights
Features from ASG Rising Leaders
Daniel Lippman (‘22) and Eli Stokols for Politico: “Musk’s ‘What Did You Do Last Week?’ Email Hits a Million Replies”
Sahil V. Shah (‘21), Nikolai Sokov, David Santoro, Miles Pomper for the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation: “Reimagining Risk Reduction: Adapting Cold War Tools to Manage 21st Century Strategic Instability”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Defne Arslan and Rich Outzen for the Atlantic Council: “Is This the End of the PKK and Its Conflict With Turkey?”
Steve Bowsher and Sarah Sewall for Foreign Affairs: “America Needs a Sovereign Wealth Fund”
Aaron Boxerman for The New York Times: “Netanyahu Sends Team to Cairo as Days Dwindle in Gaza Truce”
Jan Camenzind Broomby and Richard Lloyd Parry for The Times: “Taiwan Detains Chinese Ship After Undersea Cable Severed”
Wedaeli Chibelushi for BBC News: “UK Suspension of Aid Is 'Punitive', Rwanda Says”
John J. Hamre, Sherri Goodman, Daniel Poneman, and Dan Brouillette at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “Nuclear Energy & American Leadership: A Blueprint for the Future”
Henning Hoff for Internationale Politik Quarterly: “Merz Gets Off to a Zigzagging Start”
Tamsin Paternoster for Euronews: “Austria's Centrist Parties Clinch Coalition Deal Without the Far Right”
Cyril Ramaphosa, Anwar Ibrahim, Gustavo Petro, and Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla for Foreign Policy: “Israel’s Actions Strike at the Foundations of International Law”
Matthew Savill for the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies: “Starmer Shows His Hand on Defence Spending”
Felicia Schwartz, James Politi, and Christopher Miller for the Financial Times: “Trump Cuts Short Zelenskyy Meeting After Fiery White House Clash”
Thomas Wright for Foreign Affairs: “The Right U.S. Strategy for Russia-Ukraine Negotiations”
Nancy A. Youssef for The Wall Street Journal: “Trump Fires Top Pentagon Officers in Sweeping Overhaul”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine from the 2023 Aspen Security Forum.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine
Moderator: Fareed Zakaria, Host, Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN
Book of the Week
By Zack Cooper
“How will the United States and China evolve militarily in the years ahead? Many experts believe the answer to this question is largely unknowable. But Zack Cooper argues that the American and Chinese militaries are following a well-trodden path. For centuries, the world’s most powerful militaries have adhered to a remarkably consistent pattern of behavior, determined largely by their leaders’ perceptions of relative power shifts. By uncovering these trends, this book places the evolving military competition between the United States and China in historical context.
Drawing on a decade of research and on his experience at the White House and the Pentagon, Cooper outlines a novel explanation for how militaries change as they rise and decline. Tides of Fortune examines the paths of six great powers of the twentieth century, tracking how national leaders adjusted their defense objectives, strategies, and investments in response to perceived shifts in relative power. All these militaries followed a common pattern, and their experiences shed new light on both China’s recent military modernization and America’s potential responses.”
Podcast of the Week
Ahmed al-Sharaa joins Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell on the Leading podcast: “The New President of Syria: Trump, Palestine, and Having a $10 Million Bounty on Your Head”
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