This week, the U.S. government reopened after a 43-day shutdown, President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa met with President Trump at the White House, a coalition led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani won Iraq’s parliamentary election, and COP30 opened in Brazil.
Read more below.
Registration Open | Aspen Security Forum: DC Edition
Registration is open for the Aspen Security Forum: DC Edition! We hope you will join us for an afternoon of conversations on the most pressing national security and foreign policy challenges of our time. The Forum will feature an array of decision-makers and thought leaders from Washington, DC and around the world.
Space is limited; if you are interested in attending, apply at the link below.
This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Condoleezza Rice joined Larry Diamond and Karina Kloos for Stanford University’s Reimagining Democracy series: “Restoring Faith in Our American Institutions”
Nicholas Burns interviewed by Stephen Engle for Bloomberg: “Former Ambassador Burns on U.S.-China Relations”
Chris Brose quoted by Lauren C. Williams for Defense One: “Anduril to Build Autonomous Vessel Prototype in Korea”
Kurt Campbell interviewed by Paul Allen for Bloomberg: “China Gains in Asia Great Game ‘Undeniable’”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed Joanna Lewis and Scott Moore for the Hoover Institution’s China Considered podcast: “China: Green Power, Gray Reality”
Mark Esper interviewed by Poppy Harlow at The Wall Street Journal Board of Directors Council Summit: “Navigating a Changing Geopolitical Order”
Peter D. Feaver for Foreign Affairs: “Trump’s Year of Living Dangerously: How His Second Term Is Reshaping America and the World”
Michael Froman for the Council on Foreign Relations: “The Forgotten War in Sudan”
Jane Harman for Foreign Affairs: “Can Democracy Still Make a Comeback?”
David Ignatius for The Washington Post: “This Rising House Democrat Is a Voice for the Angry Middle”
Jack Reed at Brown University: “Veterans Day Ceremony Honors Contributions of Veterans to the Nation and to the Brown Community”
David M. Rubenstein interviewed David Grann for the America’s Book Club podcast: “David Grann on ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and America’s Hidden History”
Dan Sullivan offered remarks at the International Republican Institute’s Freedom Award
Post of the Week
Rising Leaders Program
Features from ASG Rising Leaders
Liana Fix (‘23) interviewed by Tim Franks for BBC Newshour: “France Marks 10 Years Since Bataclan Massacres”
Theresa Lou (‘21), Erin D. Dumbacher, Benjamin Frohman, Parker Novak, and Alexander B. Ward for the Council on Foreign Relations Young Professionals Briefing Series: “Careers in International Affairs”
Akanksha Ray (‘25) interviewed by Matt LoJacono for the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy: “Shaping a More Inclusive Future for Technology”
Jennifer Schuch-Page (‘21) quoted by Shotaro Tani and Ramon Royandoyan for Nikkei Asia: “Climate Action Vacuum Looms Over COP30 While China Dominates Clean Energy Tech”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Thompson Chau and James Hand-Cukierman for Nikkei Asia: “U.S. Greenlights $330M Sale of Military Aircraft Parts to Taiwan”
Colin Demarest for Axios: “Defense Industry Heaps Praise on Hegseth’s Weapons-Buying Reformation”
Euronews: “Macron and Abbas Announce Panel to Draft New Palestine Constitution After Paris Talks”
Katy Stech Ferek, Olivia Beavers, and Richard Rubin for The Wall Street Journal: “Trump Signs Spending Bill, Ending Longest Shutdown in U.S. History”
Susannah George and Tobi Raji for The Washington Post: “Syrian President Details Plans to Work With Americans He Once Fought”
Roula Khalaf for the Financial Times: “Former MI6 Chief Richard Moore: Britain Must Regain the ‘Power of Example’”
Samya Kullab for AP News: “Top Ukrainian Ministers Submit Their Resignations as the Country Is Rocked by a Corruption Scandal”
Jared Malsin and Saleh al-Batati for The Wall Street Journal: “Iraq Election Results Set Stage for a Long Power Struggle”
Constantin-Alexandru Manda for the Aspen-GMF Bucharest Forum: “Breaking the Dependency Trap: Securing Critical-Raw-Materials Supply from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea”
Justin G. Muzinich, Gina M. Raimondo, James D. Taiclet, Jonathan E. Hillman, Anya Schmemann, and the Economic Security Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations: “U.S. Economic Security: Winning the Race for Tomorrow’s Technologies”
Catherine Osborn for Foreign Policy: “Brazil Tries to Keep Climate Cooperation Alive”
Haley Ott for CBS News: “Venezuela Launches Huge Military Exercise as U.S. Navy Flotilla Nears Caribbean Waters”
Elian Peltier and Zia ur-Rehman for The New York Times: “Pakistan ‘In a State of War’ After Explosion Kills 12 in Capital”
David Pilling and Leslie Hook for the Financial Times: “How the World’s Biggest Mining Project Is a Win for China”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the future of energy security from the 2025 Aspen Security Forum.
Watts Up: Energy Security in an Era of Shifting Geopolitics
Dan Brouillette, Co-Chairman, Torridon Group LLC; 15th U.S. Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
Joel Sampaio, Speaker, Brazilian Foreign Ministry
Jason Bordoff, Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
Meghan O’Sullivan, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Moderator: Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist
Book of the Week
The Nuclear Age: An Epic Race for Arms, Power, and Survival
By Serhii Plokhy
“In The Nuclear Age, Serhii Plokhy, one of our preeminent Cold War historians, explores why governments have acquired and stockpiled nuclear weapons and reveals the global failure to reach meaningful nuclear arms treaties. Plokhy shows how, since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the risk of nuclear war has never been so high: Russia threatens nuclear aggression in its war on Ukraine; China is constructing hundreds of new missile silos; and India and Pakistan are locked in ongoing nuclear competition. Plokhy also examines how more countries than ever have come within perilous reach of acquiring nuclear arms, while new technologies, such as hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence, make the nuclear landscape increasingly unpredictable….As the danger of nuclear war remains imminent, The Nuclear Age diagnoses our era of rearmament.”
Around the Aspen Institute
“In the first episode of Season 4 of Leadership in Action, a documentary series by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Aspen Ministers Forum, former Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher shares his remarkable personal story. From his family’s experience during the 1948 Arab Israeli war to his groundbreaking role as Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel following the 1994 peace agreement, Muasher reflects on the challenges and opportunities of diplomacy in a divided region.”
Podcast of the Week
Jake Sullivan in conversation with Jon Finer for Vox Media’s The Long Game podcast: “From Terrorist to President”
Application Open | Rising Leaders Program
We are pleased to share that applications for the Rising Leaders Class of 2026 are open! Throughout the year-long program, Rising Leaders learn from key decision-makers—and most importantly, each other—under the aegis of the Aspen Strategy Group. Apply now or share this opportunity with your networks.
