This week, King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the U.S., diplomatic efforts between the U.S. and Iran stalled as the Strait of Hormuz remained largely closed, the United Arab Emirates withdrew from OPEC, and a bill passed to fund the Department of Homeland Security ending the longest partial agency shutdown in history.
Read more below.
This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Condoleezza Rice interviewed José Andrés at the Stanford Sustainability Forum: “Strengthening Community Through Food”
Anja Manuel gave the keynote presentation on geopolitics at Westmont College Women’s Leadership Council: “Celebrating Women: Westmont Women’s Leadership Council”
Chris Coons interviewed by John Berman for CNN’s News Central
Michèle Flournoy and Brian H. Hook interviewed by Janine Zacharia for the Council on Foreign Relations: “U.S. Policy Options in the War With Iran”
Jendayi Frazer interviewed Rob Walton and Edward Norton at the Stanford Sustainability Forum: “Protecting Nature at Scale”
Michael Froman for the Council on Foreign Relations: “What Is the Future of U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade?”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “Ukraine Took Russia’s Best Punch. It Wants to Teach Europe What It Learned.”
Daniel Poneman interviewed Jay Tilden and Chris Ploch for the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition’s Atomically Speaking podcast: “Two Sides of the Coin: A Conversation With Jay Tilden and Chris Ploch, NENSC’s New Leadership Team”
Penny Pritzker and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson interviewed Dan Schulman for Semafor’s The CEO Signal podcast: “Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, on AI, Layoffs, and Punching Back”
Jack Reed quoted by Jamie Tarabay and Roxana Tiron for Bloomberg: “Hegseth Battles Democrats Over Iran War at 60-Day Mark”
David Rubenstein interviewed by Becky Quick and Joe Kernen for CNBC’s Squawk Box: “Fed Chair Powell Has Brought Transparency to the Fed”
David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager for The New York Times: “How Trump’s Iran Blockade Is Complicating a High-Stakes Trip to China”
Dan Sullivan at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing
Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer interviewed Dan Wang for The Long Game podcast: “China’s Engineering State vs. America’s Lawyerly Society”
Post of the Week
Young Leaders Spotlight
Features from ASG Rising Leaders and Former Fellows
Liana Fix (‘23) and Michael Kimmage for Foreign Affairs: “The Transatlantic MAGA Fantasy”
Ian Platz (‘23) joined the Department of the Air Force’s Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Integration as a Senior Strategist
Thomas Shattuck (‘26) for the Global Taiwan Institute’s Global Taiwan Brief: “Coercion at New Heights: President Lai’s Africa Trip Canceled From the Skies”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Abdul Qahar Afghan for AP News: “Afghan Officials Say Pakistani Strikes Killed 7 and Wounded 85 in First Attacks Since Peace Talks”
Rachel Chason for The Washington Post: “Mali’s Junta Asked Russians to Bring Order. Militants Just Stormed In.”
Jerry Fisayo-Bambi for Euronews: “Trump Says He Is Weighing Reducing U.S. Troop Presence in Germany After Iran Feud With Merz”
Chantelle Lee for TIME: “After 75 Days, the DHS Shutdown Is Over”
Hadriana Lowenkron and Mark Anderson for Bloomberg: “Anthropic Plan to Expand Mythos Access Is Opposed by White House”
Roshni Majumdar and Timothy Jones for DW: “Putin Pledges Support for Iran in Talks With FM Araghchi”
Virginie Malingre for Le Monde: “Hungary’s Péter Magyar Sets His Sights on Playing the European Game in Brussels”
Kate Mansey for The Times: “Trump Calls Charles ‘The Greatest King’ as U.S. Visit Concludes”
Summer Said, Jared Malsin, and Dov Lieber for The Wall Street Journal: “The U.A.E.’s OPEC Bombshell Signals a New Middle East Order”
Leo Sands for The New York Times: “Supreme Leader Says Iran Is Planning for Ongoing Control of Strait”
Kentaro Shiozaki and Yuta Koga for Nikkei Asia: “China to Scrap Tariffs on 53 African Nations to Boost Resource Imports”
Kathryn Watson for CBS News: “Trump Speaks With Putin, Says He Isn’t Sure Whether Ukraine War or Iran War Will End First”
Jude Webber for the Financial Times: “Mexico Rules Out Extraditing Politician on U.S. Drugs Charges”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the impact of AI on national security from the 2025 Aspen Security Forum.
Cracking the Code: AI and National Security
Charlie Dent, Executive Director and Vice President, Congressional Program, Aspen Institute; Former Member of Congress (R) PA-15
Tarun Chhabra, Head of National Security, Anthropic; Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Former National Security Council Coordinator for Technology and National Security
Katrina Mulligan, OpenAI for Government, OpenAI
Moderator: Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Book of the Week
The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History
By Susan Page
“No American or foreign leader has met with as many sitting presidents as Queen Elizabeth II. Her Royal Majesty’s seventy-year reign witnessed the highs and lows of the close and crucial alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., from the Suez crisis to Brexit. Following the advice of her mentor, Winston Churchill, ‘to stay close to the Americans,’ Queen Elizabeth played an unexpected role behind the scenes that has never been thoroughly explored. In The Queen and Her Presidents, veteran political reporter Susan Page goes beyond the image of a staid monarch in colorful hats to reveal a skilled strategist, who, like many powerful women, was routinely underestimated and discounted….Page also shows the impact American presidents had on the monarch as she developed from a shy, anxious princess to a powerful and persuasive global leader, and analyzes both the reach and the limits of the ‘soft power’ she wielded….Eye-opening and compelling…The Queen and Her Presidents is a remarkable chronicle of a legendary contemporary monarch and the American presidents who helped shape her—and were shaped by her.”
Podcast of the Week
elsey Davenport joined Mark Leon Goldberg for the Global Dispatches podcast: “The High Stakes of a Major UN Meeting on Nuclear Weapons”
