Aspen Security Forum

“How hard even is it to imagine the distance to Mars with a human crew?” @mitchellreports of @NBCNews asked at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum. “It’s going to be tough… But I truly believe exploration is written in the human heart. That's what we want to do. … and I think that’s going to drive us to keep trying to get to that ultimate goal of Mars.” responded Robert Lightfoot, President @LMSpace.

“We're talking about exploration—the inspiration that you get from a human exploration mission—and then the military applications of space. So it is a strange dissonance that we deal with,” Robert Lightfoot, President @LMSpace, said at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum.

“I want to really emphasize: 20-30 years ago, space was specifically a domain accessible by governments, and now it is 78% commercially driven,” Heather Pringle, CEO @SpaceFoundation, said at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum.

“I do think that the challenge for the men and women in uniform is ‘how far and how much do they automate?’” Dan Smoot @vantortech said at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum, speaking on the ethical considerations of autonomous warfare.

“We relied on space for so many decades. And it's been a peaceful domain; and the systems that we've had up there for years and years and years were not prepared for the threats that they are seeing today. And yes, space underpins our way of life. It is part of our economic infrastructure. It's part of our national security infrastructure — how we wage war. It’s part of our exploration, and so we need to protect it.” — Heather Pringle @SpaceFoundation at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum.

“China is just getting started in space–and that whole theme from the last panel on speed and scale–that's exactly what we're seeing happening across the board in their space sector.” Director of the Aerospace Security Project, @CSIS Kari Bingen said at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum.

“I would not buy a nuclear agreement under any circumstances. I just let them sit there and stew in their lousy economy, where most of their A-level nuclear scientists have been killed, where I believe there are deep splits in the Iranian government… Let's just see what happens, because I am quite confident it's going to be a long time before they can actually build and use a nuclear weapon,” 66th U.S. Secretary of State @CondoleezzaRice said at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum, speaking about her op-ed in the @wallstreetjournal.

"Now I'm a huge believer in the transatlantic relationships and alliances in the Asia Pacific... So I'm a believer in diplomacy and so forth, but the world is different, and we need to recognize that.” - 66th Secretary of State @CondoleezzaRice said at the #AspenSecurity Forum, speaking on burden-sharing and burden-shifting.

"I think that today our foreign policy relies too much on our military and not enough on our diplomacy... We're over-relying on disruption and under-relying upon diplomacy." - 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum.

"So I think what Donald Trump tapped into rightly was the American people saying, look, ‘enough is enough…’ We can't continue to subsidize global security while others promote their own domestic welfare," 27th Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper said at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum in response to a question about NATO from @SpiegelPeter.

In his opening remarks at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum, Aspen Strategy Group Co-Chair and former U.S. Ambassador to China @RNicholasBurns quoted Aspen Strategy Group Founder Joe Nye, who often said, "All of you are here with fixed opinions, and you're going to express those opinions. But if you listen, you might learn something, and it's okay to change your mind."

"Joe Nye and Brent Scowcroft, our founders here at the Aspen Strategy Group, really believed that these majestic mountains, away from all the noise of daily life, can give us the space to think clearly, to disagree honestly with each other, and to take on really hard problems," Aspen Strategy Group Executive Director @anjamanuel1 said during the opening of the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum.

The 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum kicks off today! Tune in to the livestream here: youtube.com/watch?v=5F8ZSA… 4:30 — 4:40 PM Opening Remarks @RNicholasBurns, Co-Chair, @AspenStrategy; Former U.S. Ambassador to China; Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, @Kennedy_School @anjamanuel1, Executive Director, @AspenStrategy and Aspen Security Forum; Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC 4:40 — 5:25 PM The State of the World 2026 @CondoleezzaRice, Co-Chair, @AspenStrategy; 66th U.S. Secretary of State; Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the @HooverInst, @Stanford @MarkTEsper, 27th Secretary of Defense; Partner, @RedCellPartners Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Founder and Chairman, PSP Partners Moderator: @SpiegelPeter, @washingtonpost 5:25 — 6:15 PM Out of This World: Space and Security Kari Bingen, Director, Aerospace Security Project, @CSIS Robert Lightfoot, President, @LMSpace Heather Pringle, CEO, @SpaceFoundation Dan Smoot, CEO, @vantortech Moderator: @mitchellreports, @NBCNews

What will you hear at the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum? With this year’s Forum kicking off in three days, we invite you to check out our agenda for a preview of the coming conversations. Here’s a look at what former U.S. Ambassador to China and @Kennedy_School Professor Nicholas Burns and 22nd Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said on our stage in prior years. Visit the links below to see our current agenda or sign up to receive the livestream link. Current agenda: shorturl.at/d4gc0 Livestream Registration: shorturl.at/PkL9i

We are excited to announce more speakers joining us for the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum: Thomas J. Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria and Iraq @USEmbTurkiye, @StateDept Michael George DeSombre, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs @USAsiaPacific, @StateDept Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Founder and Chairman, PSP Partners Stephen J. Hadley, 20th U.S. National Security Advisor; Founding Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC @robertcobrien, 27th U.S. National Security Advisor; Chairman, American Global Strategies @MikeFroman, 17th U.S. Trade Representative; President, @CFR_org Robert Lighthizer, 18th U.S. Trade Representative; Chairman, Department of War Defense Policy Board Robin Colwell, Senior Vice President, Global Government Affairs, @intel Stephen E. Biegun, Former Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State; Vice Chairman, National Endowment for Democracy @CondoleezzaRice, Co-Chair, @AspenStrategy; 66th U.S. Secretary of State; Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the @HooverInst, @Stanford @RNicholasBurns, Co-Chair, @AspenStrategy; Former U.S. Ambassador to China; Goodman Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, @Kennedy_School @anjamanuel1, Executive Director, @AspenStrategy and Aspen Security Forum; Principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC Visit our website to apply to attend: tinyurl.com/9vuej2kj Stay tuned for an agenda announcement next Wednesday!

We are excited to announce more speakers for the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum: @JaneHarmanCA, Former Member, U.S. Congress @MarkTEsper, 27th U.S. Secretary of Defense; Partner, @RedCellPartners Heather Pringle, CEO, @SpaceFoundation General Bryan Fenton (Ret.), 13th Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Department of War @PasiRayala, Political State Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defence of Finland, Prime Minister's Office of Finland Wolfgang Schmidt @W_Schmidt_, Former Federal Minister, Germany David van Weel @ministerjenv, Minister of Justice and Security, The Netherlands Chris Brose @cdbrose, President and Chief Strategy Officer, @anduriltech Andrea Mitchell @mitchellreports, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and Chief Washington Correspondent, @NBCNews Visit our website to apply to attend: tinyurl.com/9vuej2kj

We are excited to announce more speakers for the 2026 #AspenSecurity Forum: @KoriSchake, Stephen E. Biegun, @EroComfort, @RahmEmanuel,  @FranckenTheo, @kaupo_rosin, @LizEconomy, Jack Jacobs, and @SG_OEA_OAS Albert Ramdin. Visit our website to apply to attend: tinyurl.com/9vuej2kj