World
Human Rights
The international community faces unprecedented threats. What will geopolitical arrangements look like going forward? Is it time to rethink America’s relationship with China? What are NATO’s strengths — and vulnerabilities? How can we protect free and independent press around the world?
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...
As Israel marks its 75th birthday, the existential challenges it faces don’t only come from geopolitical vulnerabilities. How will the Jewish state confront internal divisions and divergent opinions about threats to its democratic institutions?
Ongoing war in Ukraine and the resulting tensions between the West, Russia, and China have made the NATO alliance all the more significant, and yet perhaps more vulnerable. What lies ahead as the alliance’s member nations assess each other’s commitments to their mutual security?
Across the globe, free and fair elections have given rise to autocratic regimes. Have we underestimated the fragility of democracy and overestimated its value? (Book signing with Shadi Hamid to follow.)
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and since then, the war has proven longer and costlier than what the Kremlin might have expected. Ukrainian resistance has been successful in its counteroffensives, pushing back Russian forces from their original goal of taking Kyiv, though much of the country has still been devastated by the fighting. How much long...
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, reporters bring us more and more heart-wrenching stories and images of suffering caused by the conflict. The scale of the damage can feel overwhelming, but a firsthand account can sometimes help us process the impact and ground us in what’s happening in the region. Yuliya Tychkivska is a longtime activist and the executive director...
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and resulting geopolitical instability have caused many to draw parallels to the events preceding World War II. In the post-war years, the international community came together to establish institutions they believed would prevent worldwide conflict and genocide. Multiple conventions and treaties have since been ratified in an effort to stav...
In the first of a two-part discussion, experts explain the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which is widely misunderstood: What did Roe actually hold? And how does the Court’s much-anticipated Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling alter the current legal landscape with regard to abortion? In the second part, panelists explore a world after Dobbs. What are the co...
Inequitable and untimely responses to COVID-19 and other pandemics. Disproportionate health impacts of climate change in Africa. Unequal financing mechanisms. Lack of reliable data and information. A dearth of leadership guided by human-centered values. These are a few of the many challenges that stand in the way of global health and development systems that work for all....
As the world watches refugee families stream out of Ukraine, there is a renewed urgency to meet the needs of children caught in conflict zones — not just the basics of food and shelter, but also their emotional needs as they experience displacement and worse. How do we provide them the tools to cope with their circumstances? What initiatives are helping to mitigate the tra...
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, foreign policy strategists continue to debate what motivates Russian President Vladimir Putin and what could be his endgame. Not far behind are concerns about Chinese President Xi Jinping and whether developments in Europe will reverberate in the Far East. What do Putin and Xi have in common? What brings them together, and conve...
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...
Out on bail after a conviction for “cyber libel” by the Philippines government, journalist and freedom of the press crusader Maria Ressa checks in with NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro. How does Ressa feel in this moment, facing years in prison? Is she hopeful for her appeal with famed human rights attorney Amal Clooney fighting on her behalf? What are the origins of President Du...
International order, as we’ve known it for more than 70 years, is in flux. With changing alliances, abandoned treaties, disputes over globalism versus nationalism, and the rise of authoritarian rule, liberal democracy is deteriorating. Populist movements in Europe, America, and beyond are fueled, in part, by deep-seated grievances. Throughout much of Africa and the Pacific...
Vladimir Putin offered Donald Trump a swap at the now infamous Helsinki summit: I’ll let you interview the twelve Russian agents accused of hacking DNC emails, if you give my team access to Bill Browder. Browder is the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and author of the 2015 New York Times best-seller Red Notice, which recounts his experience as the largest f...
The unique characteristics of ideas make material progress possible. But that’s not all: Ideas matter not just for what humans have, but also for how they are. During the Pleistocene Epoch, human nature evolved in a Malthusian world of objects. We developed an ugly tendency to split humanity into “us” and “them.” A world that also includes ideas justifies a new mindset tha...
How does social change happen? When do social movements take off? Sexual harassment was once something that women had to endure; now a movement has risen up against it. White nationalist sentiments, on the other hand, were largely kept out of mainstream discourse; now there is no shortage of media outlets for them. In this book, with the help of behavioral economics, psych...
Every few months, it seems, we see more startling evidence — from the Catholic Church, to USA Gymnastics, to the Boy Scouts — of just how rampant sexual abuse of children is in our society. Add to the equation that abuse by family members is far more common than the institutional cases that make the news; the resulting picture is of a deeply destructive global phenomenon....