Last week, the 2026 Aspen Security Forum brought together top national security voices, experts, business leaders, and innovators from across the political spectrum and around the globe. We were proud to host over 600 in-person attendees, including many from our Rising Leaders Program, which fosters the next generation of national security and foreign policy leaders. Additionally, thousands of virtual participants tuned into our programming from across the world. Thank you to all speakers, participants, and attendees!
Check out all of the sessions at the link below.
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Things to Know
Features from the 2026 Aspen Security Forum
Condoleezza Rice and Mark Esper mentioned by Andrea Mitchell for NBC News: “Why the Next 6 Months are Critical for Ukraine’s Future”
Nicholas Burns, Tarun Chhabra, Rahm Emanuel, and John Phelan quoted by Kim Eun-joong for The Chosun Daily: “U.S. Officials Sound Alarm on Tech, Shipbuilding Gaps with Rapidly Advancing China”
Anja Manuel interviewed by David Gura for Bloomberg: “Entering Era With ‘Extreme Cyberwarfare Enabled by AI,’ Warns Aspen Strategy Group’s Anja Manuel”
Talal Al Kaissi quoted by Cody Combs for The National: “U.S. Decision to Raise UAE Export Status Will Strengthen AI Security, Core42 Says”
Annalena Baerbock interviewed by Romaine Bostick for Bloomberg: “UN’s Baerbock on Selecting New Secretary-General, Funding”
Fatih Birol and Meghan O’Sullivan quoted by Mohammed Sergie for Semafor: “Energy Will Cost More in a ‘Low-Trust World’: IEA’s Faith Birol”
Chris Brose quoted by Thomas Novelly for Defense One: “Anduril Pitches a Robot Wingman for U.S. Army Helicopters”
Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn quoted by Angie Orellana Hernandez for NOTUS: “Trump’s Election-Tampering Claims Fall Flat, Including With Republicans”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed by David Gura for Bloomberg: “Trump Is Changing the Relationship With China”
Michael Froman for the Council on Foreign Relations: “Trump’s New Tariffs: What to Know”
Jamieson Greer interviewed by Joe Kernen for CNBC’s Squawk Box: “U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer: ‘Expect Action Soon’ on Sweeping New Tariffs”
Timothy Haugh quoted by David E. Sanger and Dustin Volz for The New York Times: “Trump Promised Proof of Election Tampering. His Document Release Fell Far Short.”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “Trump’s Support for Lebanon Is Worth Cheering”
Eirik Kristoffersen interviewed by Daniella Cheslow, Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing, and Jerry Wu for POLITICO: “The NATO Ally Preparing for a World Where U.S. Is Stretched”
Courtney Kube interviewed by Kristen Welker for NBC News: “Trump Escalates Threats on Iran as He Attends Dignified Transfer of Fallen Soldiers”
Robert Lightfoot interviewed by Caroline Hepker and James Woolcock for Bloomberg Radio: “Space Warfighting: Can the New U.K. Government Stay Competitive?”
Leopoldo López and Félix Maradiaga interviewed by Ylli Bajraktari and Joe Wang for the Special Competitive Studies Project’s Memos to the President podcast: “A Conversation With Leopoldo López & Félix Maradiaga on Venezuela’s Transition”
John Phelan quoted by Abby Shepherd for Inside Defense: “Ousted Navy Secretary Calls Pentagon ‘Risk Averse,’ ‘Soul-Sucking’”
Gideon Rachman for Financial Times: “Trump is Slipping Into an Iran Quagmire”
Josh Rogin for Washington Post Intelligence: “Dispatch from Aspen: How to Navigate the New World Disorder”
Kaupo Rosin quoted for The Odessa Journal: “Aspen Security Forum: Ukraine War Seen as Part of Wider Global Confrontation”
Karl Rove for the The Wall Street Journal: “Will Democrats Disavow the DSA Platform?”
Ayman Safadi quoted by Raja Abdulrahim for The New York Times: “Why Jordan Hosts U.S. Troops Even as That Makes It a Target”
Lara Seligman, Shelby Holliday, and Stephen Kalin for The Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Surges Forces Toward Middle East, Giving Trump Options to Expand Iran War”
Podcasts Recorded at the 2026 Aspen Security Forum
Stephen J. Hadley, Robert O’Brien, and Michèle Flournoy interviewed by Marc Thiessen for the American Enterprise Institute’s What the Hell Is Going On? podcast: “WTH LIVE! From the Aspen Security Forum: WTH Is Going On with Trump’s Foreign Policy? Stephen Hadley, Robert O’Brien, and Michèle Flournoy Explain.”
Annalena Baerbock interviewed by Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor for Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World podcast: “The Global Impact of Trump’s Delusional Speech”
Tom Bowman and Greg Myre interviewed by Mary Louise Kelly for NPR’s Sources and Methods podcast: “Hormuz Blockade / Trump’s Mixed Messages / Who Is Jay Clayton?”
Salam Fayyad interviewed by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan for The Foreign Affairs Interview podcast: “The Future of Palestine: A Conversation With Salam Fayyad”
Julianne Smith interviewed by Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times’ The Rachman Review podcast: “Does NATO Have a Future Without U.S. Leadership?”
Yaroslav Trofimov interviewed by Mark Goldberg for the Global Dispatches podcast: “How Ukraine Turned the Tide of the War”
Post of the Week
Read of the Week
From Vilnius to Vladivostok Through the Needle’s Eye
By Leah Zell
Check out Leah Zell’s essay in Liberties:
“My father had fled to Lithuania from southwest Poland with my mother and their firstborn child, a girl, when the war broke out. The visas Sugihara issued enabled them to travel from Lithuania via the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok and then by boat to Japan.”
SAVE THE DATE: 2026 ASF DC
Wednesday, December 9 | Washington, DC
Save the date for the 2026 Aspen Security Forum: DC Edition on Wednesday, December 9, 2026. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months!
