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In a world undeniably shaped by near-constant conflict, connectedness, and globalization, what role will culture and creativity play in making the future? How does the sharing of stories, poems, and songs change how we see our allies and, perhaps more importantly, our enemies? Foreign Policy’s David Rothkopf is joined by composer Mohammed Fairouz and opera singer and Ameri...
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. For decades, American policy regarding those who reach our borders has been the subject of intense political disagreement, reflecting economic realities and cultural divides. What would a policy look like that meets both our labor and se...
After 40 years of largely cooperative Sino-US relations, policymakers, politicians, and pundits on both sides of the Pacific see growing tensions between the United States and China. Some go so far as to predict a future of conflict, driven by the inevitable rivalry between an established and a rising power, and urge their leaders to prepare now for a future showdown. Othe...
Demagogues promise a return to an imaginary past. The opposite of demagogues — politicians — focus on visions of a glorious future. The New Yorker’s Masha Gessen, author of The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, explores a number of such visions — visions of a more equal, sustainable life, visions of the common good and inclusive politics — as express...
As the rest of human activity has been globalized, so has corruption — and to such a degree that it has fueled global inequality, created extremist groups, and converted democratic institutions into autocratic regimes stripping wealth from entire nations. These organized criminals are supported by technology that can anonymize money, by a global criminal-services industry,...
The US approach to China, H. R. McMaster argues, has long been based on the faulty assumption that China will “play by the rules” once integrated into the international political and economic order. Instead, the United States must think empathetically to understand what China really wants — and then plan accordingly. Join McMaster and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg as the...
US officials have cited North Korea as the hardest intelligence collection target in the world; the problem of understanding its opaque leadership has challenged two generations of policymakers. Today, the rambunctiousness of its nuclear program belies a bleak, troubled economy, where millions face starvation and the regime faces such cash and technology shortfalls that it...
Connectivity is the most revolutionary force of the 21st century. Mankind is reengineering the planet, investing up to ten trillion dollars per year in transportation, energy, and communications infrastructure linking the world’s burgeoning megacities together. This has profound consequences for geopolitics, economics, demographics, the environment, and social identity. Co...
The Democratic majority in Congress hangs by a thread, and with it the Biden administration’s ability to accomplish much of its agenda. What the past two years have shown us is a party with aging leadership, held hostage by two senators, and divided by different visions of its core mission and values. With the 2022 midterms just around the corner and questions already bein...
As a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia wearily sustains, Ukraine’s government still feels the two-year-old burn of Russia’s unlawful Crimea annexation. And although this defining geopolitical provocation still sets the governments of Moscow and Kiev at odds, Ukraine has many competing priorities. What is the future of economic sanctions on Russia? Can Ukraine defeat cor...
For years, experts have predicted that the next major conflict would take place inside our computers, rather than on physical battlefields. But the initial months of Russia's war in Ukraine have seen a surprising absence of cyber warfare — or has it? What’s the real role digital attacks have played in that war, and what have we learned about how cyber war works — and doesn...
In a time of uncertainty, rapid change, and disruption, who is best positioned to move society forward? Many are losing faith not only in government, but in the institutions of journalism, nonprofits, and higher education. What role should these organs of civil society play in today’s fractured world, and how can people of good will come together to best make a difference?...
From global health threats to the refugee crisis, to privacy and cybersecurity, international organizations and the private sector are often in a better position and more effective on the frontlines of transnational threats than governmental entities. Join the Global Head of Public Policy for Google, a doctor working to get vaccines to the world’s neediest, and the former...
Water is perhaps the world’s most precious and health-sustaining resource, and surely one most at risk. Microbes, lead, and other contaminants threaten access to clean and safe drinking water. Record-breaking droughts and catastrophic floods put burdensome pressure on agriculture and imperil crops. In the face of these challenges, leaders are stepping up to reimagine water...
The crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has embarked on the social and economic renewal of Saudi Arabia, launching a national program known as Vision 2030 and announcing $500 billion to build a city of the future, Neom. Social changes looked promising: Gender segregation was easing up as women were granted attendance to sporting events, and the kingdom adopted an official g...
Disaster in Syria and increasing instability in Iraq, Libya, and Yemen will continue to fuel a refugee crisis that is challenging the world, and in particular the European Union, whose future cohesion is anything but certain. Meanwhile, networked terrorists continue to wreak havoc around the globe, which by the way, is heating up. Cooling down? Oil prices and the Chinese e...
The 2022 primary season continues to unfold as a test of former President Trump’s hold over the Republican party. What have electoral results thus far told us about how internal party struggles will resolve, and what difference might it make if the former president decides not to run in 2024? Where is the party’s base and where are its general election voters on key issues...
Some suggest we are well into a fourth industrial revolution — a time of significant and fundamental shifts in the ways we create, manufacture, and consume goods and services. Serious questions abound regarding the degree to which artificial intelligence, automation, and online economies will level considerable and long-term dislocations to the global economy. Given the pa...
Former US Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2015 to 2019, and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass analyze the United States’ role in the world — how our relationships, responsibilities, entanglements, and motivations, have shifted in recent years and what’s at stake in the months ahead.
Russia is increasingly acting as an outlaw state across the international stage—undermining European democracies, harassing US diplomats, harboring sophisticated cybercriminals, and testing Western alliances. What’s behind these actions, and how should the United States, Europe, and the West as a whole respond to the rising belligerence of Putin’s Russia?