Setup
Today, the common experience of citizenship in the United States is more important than ever. We’re more connected technologically, but we’re more isolated socially, and drifting apart from each other geographically, politically, economically, religiously, and culturally. There’s a chance—right now—for bold action to inspire a renewed sense of citizenship that will fundamentally change our country: making national service a common expectation and common opportunity for young Americans of all backgrounds. The session will explore how to make that happen: How do we engage the next president to prioritize it? What will it take to inspire young Americans to make this alternative choice and make it a mainstream option after high school or college? How can institutions—higher education, employers, and high schools—incentivize it? How do we move this idea from nice to necessary?
Explore More
USA


Most Americans today would agree that the dream of supporting a family and living a good life on one full time salary is not available to vast numbers of people. Wages have no...


Shakespeare is ubiquitous in literature classes and theater, but the avenues of relating to his work are not always clear to young people and modern audiences. Some, such as S...


Climate change catastrophes are already happening with increasing regularity, and it’s clear we need to take action. The Biden administration has set a target of zero carbon e...


Even when the economy is booming and unemployment is low, millions of Americans still face economic hardship. And in the last few years the United States has dealt with supply...


When Sal Khan created Khan Academy, he was trying to scale up the successful experiences he’d had tutoring his cousins one-on-one in math. He saw how effective it could be for...


Almost everyone agrees that immigration policy in the United States is lacking, but despite decades of debate, Congress has not been able to pass comprehensive reform on the i...

Americans seem more culturally and ideologically divided than at any point in most of our lifetimes, with no prospect of bridging those divides any time soon. The only thing w...

It’s a fact: In communities where voting rates are higher, health outcomes are better. That’s why ER physician Alister Martin, the Founder of Vot-ER and CEO of A Healthier Dem...


Populations around the world have been electing more and more autocratic leaders in the past couple decades, via supposedly free, fair, and democratic elections. The freedom o...


Merely defining gun violence is difficult, and coming to agreement on what to do about it often seems near-impossible in the United States. But people on all sides of the deba...


The U.S. Supreme Court continues to issue major decisions that have profound impacts on the lives of Americans and the political future of the country. During the term that ju...

At the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival, we dug into some of the most important and fascinating issues of our time, from rebuilding trust in our institutions and the promise and peri...

If one dives deeply into the statistics, the American Dream is actually quite alive and well. In his provocative book, The Myth of American Inequality, former U.S. senator Phi...

Do American universities have an obligation to educate their students to be the next generation of citizens and civic leaders? What does it mean for a university “to offer stu...

How do we describe the Republican Party today, and what are the dynamics that will shape its future?

Join John Hamre, CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for a dynamic exploration of the transformational forces that will shape the global community throu...

Journalist Tom Friedman reflects on 28 years of reporting, and renowned architect David Adjaye shares how he approaches the design of physical spaces — and how those spaces ha...

In their new book, co-authors and Stanford professors Rob Reich and Mehran Sahami argue that big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental h...

With the dream of the Oslo Accords long in the rear-view mirror and no prospect of an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians ahead, is it time to give up on the two-state...

From Washington to Biden, presidents have changed America — and the world — for both better and worse. If the American presidency is the ultimate test of leadership, what does...