Humanitarian crises, green energy and a recent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump were among the topics discussed at this week’s Aspen Security Forum.
The four-day conference, led by the Aspen Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute, concludes Friday; conversations with high-ranking officials broadly cover matters of national security, international affairs and conflict.
After Saturday’s shooting at a Trump campaign rally, several speakers had to cancel their appearances; the lineup was also impacted by other events and speaker illness. (Nick Burns, the former director of the Aspen Strategy Group and a current U.S. ambassador to China, had to cancel after catching COVID-19.)
Below are some of the takeaways from select panels so far.
Speakers address assassination attempt against former President Trump
The assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump was a focal point at one Aspen Security Forum panel on Wednesday, titled “The Evolving Threat Landscape” and moderated by journalist Andrea Mitchell. The incident was also a recurring topic of conversation throughout the forum.
Former secretary of defense Mark Esper denounced the shooting right off the bat and praised the secret service’s work to secure the president after shots were fired — while also questioning security measures at the rally in Pennsylvania.
“It was a horrific event, and we're glad that the President is safe and yet mourn for the one American that died and the others that were injured,” Esper said. “But look, I'm not a security expert in terms of law enforcement, but clearly there was a failure with regard to securing the outer perimeter.”
“Leaving exposed a rooftop less than 150 yards from the podium seems like a glaring error to most people,” he added.
The investigation into Saturday’s assassination attempt is underway and evolving.
In the meantime, Esper worries that people are pointing fingers in a way that could escalate harsh political discourse.
“You know, is it local or state versus federal? Who did this? Who did that?,” Esper said. “
“Each side has conspiracy theories about what happened, what didn't happen,” he added.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Charles Johnson also spoke about the dangerous state of political discourse during the panel.
“I have said numerous times that unacceptable rhetoric makes unacceptable behavior acceptable — and for the dangerous, deranged among us, (it makes) violence inevitable — and that’s what happened on Saturday,” Johnson said, joining over Zoom.
Johnson also critiqued the prevalence of guns in American society.
He said it was “appalling and inexcusable” that the shooter was able to access an AR-15 rifle — “which, in my judgment, is a weapon of war with no legitimate use in society.”
“We’re back to that same issue all over again, unfortunately,” Johnson said.
Human rights leader wants more accountability from global leaders
The head of the International Rescue Committee believes that global leaders are not being held accountable for crimes against human rights, he said at a panel on Thursday.
President and CEO David Miliband was speaking on a panel about serving the world’s most vulnerable people — and he touched on the humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan.
He said that when leaders don’t have to answer for various crimes against humanity, it’s a threat to civilian safety.
That includes “the right of civilians not to be targeted in conflict — the majority of people who die in conflict now are civilians, not soldiers” as well as “the right of civilians to receive aid in conflict, and the right of aid workers to go about their business without threat to life or limb,” Miliband said.
“The burden of proof seems to have been reversed,” he added.
Miliband referenced the Atlas of Impunity, a tool that ranks countries based on how accountable they are for violations of global norms like abuse of human rights, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation.
Countries in northern Europe, like Finland, Germany and Sweden, ranked highest.
Syria and Afghanistan ranked lowest. The United States ranked 45th out of 163 countries analyzed.
Pundits, intellectuals consider consider politics of green energy
Green energy and a transition away from carbon and fossil fuels were on the agenda for a Wednesday panel on “Global Energy Challenges.”
Meghan O’Sullivan is a former national security advisor, and currently serves as the Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard.
She said that even though the GOP may not be vocally supportive of hitting climate goals, they’re fans of money for green energy, including “hundreds of billions of dollars” in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
“There will be constituents who want to keep those incentives, who want to keep that pipeline of money,” O’Sullivan said.
Ernie Moniz, who served as energy secretary during the Obama administration, agreed with O’Sullivan.
He said that constituent sentiment could also spur action from elected officials.
“Extreme weather is driving public polling way, way over onto the side of, ‘we need to do something,” Moniz said.
And, as O’Sullivan noted, there are some places where green energy technology has bipartisan consensus.
“There’s a number of the new technologies that Ernie mentioned which Republicans are going to be in support of: nuclear energy, carbon management, carbon capture and storage,” O’Sullivan said. “All of these things, I think, will continue to have Republican support.”
Panelists also noted that even if the White House changes hands in November and support for green energy policies shift, there’s still a lot that state and local governments can do to push forward innovations and clean energy for their own communities.
Aspen Public Radio will conclude a series of special broadcasts from the forum on Friday night at 8 p.m.
