The Weekly Leaf
This week, Saudi-backed Yemeni forces announced a major offensive operation against Houthi rebels; the U.S. pressured Russia to release more details surrounding a plague researcher’s death in Siberia; French students led massive protests against education policies; and the U.S. removed bombers from RAF Fairford due to Iranian drone threats.
Read more below.
This Week’s Content Highlights
Features from Aspen Strategy Group Members
Condoleezza Rice and moderator Olivia Walton at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: “Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Says Humility Key to Democracy”
Anja Manuel interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin for CNBC’s Squawk Box
Kay Bailey Hutchison discussed NATO building more deterrence capabilities with modern warfare on NewsNation
Chris Brose interviewed by Bill Hemmer for Fox News’ America’s Newsroom: “U.S. Officials Feared Drone Swarm Threat Before U.S. Bombers Left UK Air Base”
Chris Coons interviewed by Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz for Bloomberg’s Balance of Power: “Senator Coons Says U.S. Should Reexamine Ties With Israel”
Elizabeth Economy interviewed by Ian Bremmer for the GZERO World podcast: “The Great U.S.-China Superpower Rivalry”
Mark Esper quoted by Chloe Taylor for CNBC: “Trump’s Former Defense Secretary Sees No End in Sight for Iran War — to the Benefit of America’s ‘Greatest Adversary’”
Michael Froman for The New York Times: “America Is Risking Its Biggest Asset”
Jane Harman interviewed by John Berman on CNN
David Ignatius and moderator David Priess at George Mason University’s Hayden Center: “An Evening with David Ignatius”
David Petraeus interviewed by Finn Murphy for the Forecast 2050 podcast: “We Need Revolutionary Military Change”
Penny Pritzker and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson interviewed Vimal Kapur for The CEO Signal podcast: “Inside the Breakup of an American Industrial Giant”
David Rubenstein published his new book: “Speaking of America: Great Conversations at the Library of Congress”
David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt for The New York Times: “Trump’s Retreat: From the Gulf to Britain, American Forces Pull Back”
Jake Sullivan, Ylli Bajraktari, and moderator Graham Allison at Harvard University’s JFK Jr. Forum: “Assessing the AI Race: The U.S. vs. China ft. Jake Sullivan & Ylli Bajraktari”
Post of the Week
Features from ASG Rising Leaders and Fellows
Rebecca J. Anderson (‘26), Shubham Singhal, and Jan Mischke for Barron’s: “Central Bank Signals Matter—But These Forces Tell Us More”
Leanne Erdberg Steadman (‘22) and Peter J. Quaranto for Just Security: “A Better Path for Peace and Security? Focus on Dignity.”
Liana Fix (‘23) quoted by Paul Taylor for The Guardian: “Germany Is Right to Rearm. But Europe has Well-Founded Fears About That”
Mari Manoogian (‘21) interviewed by Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker for The Press Box podcast: “What Happened to Troy Aikman and ESPN? Plus, a Senator’s Hawk-Sized Airball.”
Elliot Silverberg (‘23) started his PhD at King’s College London
Helen Toner (‘21) and Kyle Chan interviewed by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan for The Foreign Affairs Interview podcast: “What America and China Fear Most About AI”
Things to Know
Content Relevant to Aspen Security Forum Discussions
Ahmed Al-haj and Samy Magdy for the AP: “Saudi-Backed Yemeni Forces Expel Houthi Rebels From Several Areas Around Key Strait, Officials Say”
Ahmed Al Omran and John Paul Rathbone for the Financial Times: “Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey Trigger Mutual Defence Pact”
Catherine Belton and Greg Miller for The Washington Post: “Germany Arrests Former Intelligence Chief in Espionage Case”
Vanessa Buschschlüter for BBC: “What to Know About Brazil’s Election as Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro Face Off”
Anthony Capaccio for Bloomberg: “UPS Worker Missed Email, Letting China Get F-35 Parts”
Richard Engel for NBC News: “France Shuts Down Nearly 900 Schools as Violent Education Protests Escalate”
Camille Gijs and Carlo Martuscelli for POLITICO: “China Trade Talks Test EU’s Appetite for Tougher Action”
Olena Harmash and Vladyslav Smilianets for Reuters: “At Least 32 Killed in Ukraine, Zelenskiy Condemns One of Russia’s Most ‘Vile Strikes’”
Jacqueline Munis for The Atlantic: “What We Really Know About the Russian ‘Plague’ Case”
Norimitsu Onishi for The New York Times: “Parti Québécois Returns to Power, Reviving Quebec Sovereignty Push”
Joseph Rachman for Foreign Policy: “What Does China’s New Military Base in Laos Mean?”
Felix Tamsut for DW: “ICC Unseals Taliban Leaders’ Warrants Over Persecuting Women”
Ishaan Tharoor for The New Yorker: “The Fighting in Ethiopia Is Part of a Far Bigger Conflict”
Tiago Ventura and Olivia-Anne Cleary for TIME: “Why the U.S. Bomber Withdrawal From a UK Air Base Is Significant”
Dasl Yoon for The Wall Street Journal: “Land Mines in the Korean DMZ Deliver Warning Against Defections”
From the Archives
Revisit our conversation on the global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, the role of investigative journalism in strengthening democratic resilience, and the personal risks faced by those who expose abuses of power from the 2026 Aspen Security Forum.
Film Screening in Paepcke Auditorium: Antidote
Christo Grozev, Head of Investigations, The Insider
Moderator: Yaroslav Trofimov, The Wall Street Journal
Book of the Week
The Best Kind of American: A True Story of Murder, War, and America’s Undoing in the Middle East
By Kim Ghattas
“On January 18, 1984, Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut, was assassinated by a pair of gunmen outside his office. His murder, in the wake of the bombing of the U.S. Marines’ barracks, Palestinian guerrilla warfare, and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was just one more shocking headline in a city ravaged by the chaos of nine years of war. There was no investigation. Four decades later, the question of who killed Malcolm, and why, is still not fully resolved.
In The Best Kind of American, Kim Ghattas embarks on a quest to shed new light on Kerr’s forgotten assassination, weaving together the family’s story with that of Lebanon’s warlords and peacemakers, Hezbollah hostage takers and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and American presidents from Reagan to Trump. She also tells the definitive story of how Beirut came to be the point of origin for the policies and people who went on to shape the Middle East for decades, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was then assassinated in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike in the opening salvo of their 2026 war against the Islamic Republic. With the nuance, clarity, and storytelling that made Black Wave an era-defining work on the Middle East, Ghattas delivers a riveting, deeply human saga—a must-read for understanding why this conflict continues to shape today’s world.”
Podcast of the Week
David Sanger joined Jane Perlez for the Belfer Center’s Face Off: Nuclear Anarchy? podcast: “The New Nuclear Age”
Join Our Team!
The Aspen Strategy Group is seeking a Program Manager to oversee and manage our main leadership initiatives: the Rising Leaders Program (RLP), which is now in its sixth year, and the Albright International Leaders Program (AILP) which will be launched in 2027. While the focus of the role will be on these leadership programs, the Program Manager will also contribute across the other pillars of our work including the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum.
This position is set in a very collaborative, ambitious, dynamic-team, and fast-paced environment. As the ASG team prepares for each new cohort/class of leaders, meeting, program, and project, the Program Manager is given a high level of responsibility and ownership to manage the responsibilities and portfolio assigned to them. We seek candidates with the ability to work both efficiently as part of a team and independently to ensure the success of the ASG’s various activities.
Thank you for sharing this opportunity with your networks.
