The Weekly Leaf
This week, Germany and the United States announced their intention to send Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the Doomsday Clock moved to 90 seconds to midnight, and tensions flared between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Read more below.
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This Week's Content Highlights
Features from the Aspen Strategy Group Members
Chris Brose quoted by the Association of the United States Army: "Modernization Speed Critical to U.S. Military Success"
Sylvia Burwell interviewed by Maril MacDonald for the Let Go and Lead podcast: "Leading in Complex Situations"
Mark T. Esper interviewed by Seth Jones for CSIS: "A Global Outlook with Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper"
Michael Froman interviewed by Shereen Bhan for CNBC-18: "India an Important Market, Many Fintech Startups to Partner With"
Kay Bailey Hutchison interviewed by David Westin for Bloomberg: "Germany Should Send Leopard Tanks to Ukraine"
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: "Blinken Ponders the Post-Ukraine-War Order"
David Petraeus interviewed by Erin Burnett for CNN: "Retired General Explains Why Tanks Are So Significant on the Battlefield"
David Rubenstein interviewed Lien-Hang T. Nguyen for PBS: "History with David Rubenstein"
David Sanger and Eric Schmitt for The New York Times: "The NATO Alliance Is Holding Strong on Ukraine. But Fractures Are Emerging."
Dan Sullivan joined a congressional delegation to the Middle East
Lawrence H. Summers interviewed by Gerard Baker for the Free Expression podcast: "Inflation, Recession, the Fed - and Free Speech on Campus"
Tweet of the Week
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Jerry Brown, Sharon Squassoni, and Daniel Holz for CNN: "The Doomsday Clock Is Ticking - Clock's Hands Move Closest Ever to Midnight and Catastrophe"
Pekka Haavisto quoted by Nicolas Camut for POLITICO: "Finland May Need to Join NATO Without Sweden, Foreign Minister Says"
Jane Harman, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Tanja Fajon, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Bogdan Aurescu for the WEF: "A New Helsinki"
Reid Hoffman interviewed ChatGPT for the Greymatter podcast: "The Human-AI Partnership"
Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee, and Abigail Williams for NBC News: "Inside the Biden Administration's Decision to Reverse Course and Give Tanks to Ukraine"
Gordon Lubold for The Wall Street Journal: "U.S. Weapons Industry Unprepared for a China Conflict, Report Says"
Henry Paulson for Foreign Affairs: "America's China Policy Is Not Working"
Boris Ruge, Jacob Heilbrunn, and Abderrahim Foukara interviewed by Steve Clemons for Al Jazeera: "Are the U.S. and Europe Uniting or Drifting Apart?"
Anne-Marie Slaughter for Project Syndicate: "Who Is Part of the Free World?"
Anne Soy and Cecilia Macaulay for BBC News: "Rwanda-DR Congo Tension: Shooting of Plane an 'Act of War'"
Book of the Week
By Richard Haass
"The United States faces dangerous threats from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, terrorists, climate change, and future pandemics. The greatest peril to the country, however, comes not from abroad but from within, from none other than ourselves. The question facing us is whether we are prepared to do what is necessary to save our democracy.
The Bill of Obligations is a bold call for change. Richard Haass argues that the very idea of citizenship must be revised and expanded. The Bill of Rights is at the center of our Constitution, yet our most intractable conflicts often emerge from contrasting views as to what our rights ought to be. As former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out, 'Many of our cases, the most difficult ones, are not about right versus wrong. They are about right versus right.' The lesson is clear: rights alone cannot provide the basis for a functioning, much less flourishing, democracy.
But there is a cure: to place obligations on the same footing as rights. The ten obligations that Haass introduces here are essential for healing our divisions and safeguarding the country’s future. These obligations reenvision what it means to be an American citizen. They are not a burden but rather commitments that we make to fellow citizens and to the government to uphold democracy and counter the growing apathy, anger, selfishness, division, disinformation, and violence that threaten us all."
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