This week, the U.S.-Israel-Iran ceasefire was tested as Israel continued strikes in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz remained mostly closed, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with President Trump in Washington, Taiwan’s opposition leader Cheng Li-wun met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, and the Artemis II crew prepared for splashdown after traveling around the moon.
Read more below.
2026 Aspen Security Forum: Application to Attend Now Open!
The Aspen Strategy Group will host the 2026 Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, CO from the evening of Tuesday, July 14 to midday Friday, July 17. Our flagship Forum will feature an array of decision-makers and thought leaders from Washington, DC and around the world. We will have very limited seating for the public; if you are interested in attending in person, please apply to attend below.
All of our sessions will be livestreamed. You can register here to receive the link for our livestreamed content.
Sponsorship opportunities are available for ASF. If you are interested or want to learn more, please contact Deb Cunningham at deb.cunningham@aspeninstitute.org.
This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Condoleezza Rice interviewed by John Ortberg for the Become New podcast: “Dr. Condoleezza Rice on Navigating Political Division”
Nicholas Burns quoted by Michael Crowley for The New York Times: “New Deadline Looms for U.S. and Iran as Truce Wavers”
Anja Manuel interviewed by Sanjay Puri for The Regulating AI Podcast: “The Global Majority Cannot Be Left Behind Again”
Kay Bailey Hutchison interviewed by E.D. Hill and quoted by Charlie McCarthy for Newsmax: “No Iran Tolls in Hormuz Deal”
Stephen Biegun and Sarah Beran interviewed by Stephen Orlins at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ CHINA Town Hall
Elizabeth Economy interviewed Nadia Schadlow for the Hoover Institution’s China Considered podcast: “U.S. Grand Strategy and the China Factor With Nadia Schadlow”
Mark Esper interviewed by Joe Mathieu for Bloomberg’s Balance of Power: “Mark Esper on Trump Iran Deadline, Possible Strike”
Michael Froman interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Joe Kernen, and Becky Quick for CNBC’s Squawk Box: “U.S. Underestimated ‘How Much Pain’ Iran Is Willing to Go Through”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “The Iran War’s Exit Ramp Has Become a Diplomatic Maze”
Meghan O’Sullivan and Jason Bordoff for Foreign Affairs: “The Iran Shock”
David Petraeus interviewed by Dana Bash for CNN’s Inside Politics: “Iran Could Emerge From War ‘Strategically Strengthened’”
Daniel Poneman interviewed Stephen Streiffer for the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition’s Atomically Speaking podcast: “A Conversation With Dr. Stephen Streiffer, Director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory”
Penny Pritzker and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson interviewed Emma Walmsley for Semafor’s The CEO Signal podcast: “Emma Walmsley on Leading and Leaving GSK”
Jack Reed quoted by Tara Suter for The Hill: “Trump Has ‘Become as Fanatical as the Regime Leaders in Tehran’”
David Rubenstein interviewed Jeff Koons for The David Rubenstein Show
David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “U.S. Forces Stand Ready to Resume Combat. The President May Not Be as Enthused.”
Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer for The Long Game podcast: “Did Trump’s Iran Ceasefire Make Iran Stronger?”
Philip Zelikow, Niall Ferguson, and Richard Haass for The Free Press: “How to Stop Iran From Winning the War”
Post of the Week
Young Leaders Spotlight
Features from ASG Rising Leaders and Former Fellows
Eliza Mace (‘24) and Ben Thompson for Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science series: “Task Prioritization for Remote Sensing AI Models”
Sahil Shah (‘21) for the European Leadership Network: “P5 Perspectives on the 2026 NPT Review Conference: United Kingdom”
Elliot Silverberg (‘23) for Japan Forward: “Japan Must Rethink Its Middle East Strategy”
Jordan Warlick (‘26) promoted to Deputy Staff Director at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Natalie Allison and Catherine Belton for The Washington Post: “JD Vance Campaigns for Far-Right Nationalist Viktor Orban in Hungary”
Larisa Brown for The Times: “Russian Submarines ‘Tried to Spy on UK While World Distracted by Iran’”
Thompson Chau for Nikkei Asia: “Xi Jinping Meets New Face of Taiwan’s Opposition as U.S. and Japan Watch”
Sang-Hun Choe for The New York Times: “North Korea Tests New Weapons, Drawing Lessons From Iran War”
Aniruddha Ghosal for AP News: “Vietnam Elects Communist Party Chief as President, Echoing China’s Power Structure”
Paul Njie and Hafsa Khalil for BBC News: “DR Congo Agrees to Take Deportees From the U.S.”
Andrea Palasciano and Courtney McBride for Bloomberg: “Rutte Says NATO Moving From Unhealthy Dependence on U.S.”
Costas Paris, Rebecca Feng, and Jean Eaglesham for The Wall Street Journal: “What’s Happening in the Strait of Hormuz Since the Cease-Fire?”
Barak Ravid for Axios: “Netanyahu Announces Negotiations With Lebanon After U.S. Pressure”
Rana Taha for DW: “Afghanistan, Pakistan Held ‘Useful’ Peace Talks, Kabul Says”
John Thornhill for the Financial Times: “The Chips Chokehold That Could End the AI Investment Boom”
Darrell M. West for the Brookings Institution: “Artemis II and the Rapid Rise of a Global Space Economy”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the nexus of space and national security from the 2025 Aspen Security Forum.
Zero Gravity, High Stakes: The Future of Space
General Tim Ray, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Executives for National Security; Former Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command
Nina Armagno, Chair, Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. Space Policy; Former Lieutenant General, U.S. Space Force
Jane Harman, Chair, Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. Space Policy; Former Congresswoman; Chair, Commission on the National Defense Strategy; Aspen Institute Trustee
Robert Lightfoot, President, Lockheed Martin Space
Moderator: Gordon Lubold, NBC News
Book of the Week
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
By Branko Milanovic
“The world’s two great economic powers are on opposite trajectories. In the United States, decades of neoliberal policies produced a small class of rich elites and gutted the middle class. In China, the same global forces have created a massive new upper class. The result is the greatest reshuffling of global incomes since the Industrial Revolution—a dramatic shakeup of each country’s political order. As the two powers retreat from one another, the implications for their futures, and for the world economy, are uncertain.
In The Great Global Transformation, acclaimed economist Branko Milanovic draws on original research to chart how these seismic shifts will shape the next century of the global economy. As both the U.S. and China retreat into protectionism, Milanovic shows how a new and multipolar world order will follow—and how rising nationalism will have dramatically different effects on the two countries. And he shows us the fight ahead: as plutocracy returns, global war threatens, and a new system silently shapes our nations, driving populist discontent to the breaking point.”
Podcast of the Week
Peter Conradi and Victor Sebestyen joined Luke Jones for The Times’ The Story podcast: “Will Voters Back ‘the Poster Boy for the Far-Right’?”
