This week, U.S. launched fresh attacks on Iran following Iran’s strike on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned, two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela, and Trump-backed candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won the Colombian runoff presidential election.
Read more below.
2026 Aspen Security Forum
Featured Discussions: Energy Security and Critical Minerals
We are pleased to announce speakers who will discuss a wide range of pressing global energy challenges including the impact of the Iran war, critical minerals, developments in Venezuela on global oil markets, and more:
- Jarrod Agen, Assistant to the President and Executive Director, National Energy Dominance Council, The White House
- Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency
- Meghan O’Sullivan, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
- Daniel Poneman, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; Co-Chair, Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition
A limited number of passes are still available. Find the list of speakers announced to date on our website, and apply to attend here.
All sessions will be livestreamed. Please register here to receive the link.
This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Condoleezza Rice for the Hoover Institution’s Founders and Fellows series: “Alexander Hamilton”
Nicholas Burns and Vali Nasr interviewed by Meghna Chakrabarti for WBUR’s On Point: “What Does the Iran Peace Memo Mean for the U.S.?”
Anja Manuel, Abla Abdel-Latif, and moderator Samir Saran at the World Governments Summit: “Where Is the Global South Heading?”
Kay Bailey Hutchison interviewed by Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz for Bloomberg’s Balance of Power podcast: “We Need to Help Ukraine End This War”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed Jonathan Fulton for the China Considered podcast: “The Day After: America, China, and a Changed Middle East”
Mark Esper interviewed by Garrett Haake for NBC’s Meet the Press: “Fmr. Trump Defense Sec. Esper Lays Out ‘Serious Questions and Concerns’ About Iran Deal”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “A Punching Bag. ‘A Graveyard.’ A New Temptation for Trump.”
Jack Reed interviewed by Alicia Menendez for MS Now: “‘Temper Tantrum’: Sen. Reed Says Trump Doesn’t Have Policy Knowledge After Scraping Bill Signing”
Susan Rice interviewed by Jonathan Karl for ABC News’ This Week: “Trump’s Iran Agreement ‘Is a Very Bad Outcome’”
David E. Sanger for The New York Times: “NATO’s Leader Makes His Case to Trump for Preserving the Alliance”
Jake Sullivan interviewed by Michel Martin for NPR: “Who Would Pay for Trump’s Proposed $300 Billion Iran Reconstruction Fund?”
Philip Zelikow for the Hoover Institution: “Reading From the Trough: Establishment Thought on Governance, Growth, and Technology, 1967– 1985”
Post of the Week
Young Leaders Spotlight
Features from ASG Rising Leaders and Former Fellows
Rebecca J. Anderson (‘26) shared remarks on sustaining American economic competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Fortune 500 Innovation Forum
María Fernanda Bozmoski (‘26) for the Atlantic Council at “The Americas Together: Confronting Shared Challenges, Building Shared Prosperity”
Amori Colbert (‘26) was inducted into the Air Force Museum as part of their Air Force Warrant Officer Exhibit
Liana Fix (‘23) for the Financial Times: “Back-Stabbing Myths Are Driving the U.S. and Europe Further Apart”
Theresa Lou (‘21) for World Politics Review: “Xi’s Trip to Pyongyang Highlights Kim’s Increased Room for Maneuver”
Sahil Shah (‘21) for Foreign Policy: “What Is Iran’s Nuclear Status Quo?”
Helen Toner (‘21) quoted by Madhumita Murgia, George Hammond, Rafe Rosner-Uddin, and Joe Miller for The Irish Times: “Anthropic Scrambles After Trump Administration Freezes Its Top AI Models”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Farouk Chothia for BBC: “Sexual Violence Increasingly Used as ‘Weapon of War’ in Sudan, UN Says”
Richard Connor and Rosie Birchard for DW: “EU Hosts Taliban for Migrant Return Talks in Brussels”
Niall Ferguson for The Free Press: “Why Britons Really Regret Brexit”
Lucy Fisher, Jim Pickard, and George Parker for the Financial Times: “Burnham Poised to Succeed Starmer as UK Prime Minister”
Regina Garcia Cano, Juan Pablo Arraez, and Megan Janetsky for the AP: “Venezuelans Take Search for the Missing Into Their Own Hands as Earthquake Death Toll Climbs”
Mary Ilyushina, David L. Stern, and Natalia Abbakumova for The Washington Post: “Ukraine’s Drones Are Spoiling Putin’s Vision for Crimea”
Yian Lee for Bloomberg: “Taiwan Drill Simulates Maritime ‘Quarantine’ by China Forces”
The Lowy Institute: “How Do Australians Feel About the World in 2026?”
John McLaughlin for The National Interest: “Five Unlikely Things That Need to Happen for Palestinian Statehood to Be Possible”
Bradley Olson and Tina Li for The Wall Street Journal: “Microsoft’s Satya Nadella: We Can’t Let AI Giants Eat the Economy”
Christopher Sabatini for Foreign Policy: “Why Latin America’s New Right Will Struggle to Govern”
Wataru Suzuki for Nikkei Asia: “China Hits Dozens of U.S. Companies With Export Controls, Procurement Bans”
Sasha Vakulina for Euronews: “No Zelenskyy in Gdansk: Can Ukraine’s Recovery Forum Ease Warsaw–Kyiv Tensions?”
Alexander Ward, Benoit Faucon, and Rebecca Feng for The Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Launches Fresh Attacks on Iran”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on Iran from the 2025 Aspen Security Forum.
Stephen Hadley, Founding Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC; Former U.S. National Security Advisor
Rachel Bronson, Senior Advisor, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Vali Nasr, Majid Khadduri Professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
David Sanger, White House and National Security Correspondent, The New York Times
Moderator: Dafna Linzer, Then U.S. News and World Report
Book of the Week
Surviving Chaos: Geopolitics When the Rules Fail
By Mark Leonard
“Mark Leonard reveals how geopolitics is being rewritten in an age of ‘Un-Order’, where no one agrees on the rules, and even the concept of order itself is up for debate. Drawing on years of conversations with leaders and thinkers from Beijing to Washington, Leonard argues that we are witnessing a new divide in international politics between the grand ‘architects’ who try to build a stable global system and the nimble ‘artisans’ who adapt, improvise and survive amidst disruption. China, he shows, has embraced the artisan’s mindset, while Europe and the West cling to the fading certainties of the architects.
Part analysis, part manifesto, Surviving Chaos offers a bold new framework for understanding power in the twenty-first century – and a call for leaders to stop defending yesterday’s world and start learning how to thrive in tomorrow’s.”
Podcast of the Week
Ibraheem Bahiss joined Richard Atwood for the International Crisis Group’s Hold your Fire! podcast: “What’s Happening in Afghanistan”
