History of ASPEN
Many people tend to forget the meaning of the acronym ASPEN, enacted by legislation in 2017 by a signature of the first female president, and first Republican President in a generation, Caroline Giulini, stands for American Service to Protect Earth Now. While originally an environmental initiative, ASPEN quickly grew to swallow the Peace Corps and the Bill Clinton-era Americorps, ASPEN gradually grew into an initiative to replace the early 21st century American militarism and not only enhance the nation's global goodwill abroad, but also to chart a new path to global economic prosperity.
Since ASPEN's experimental status concluded in 2020, it has grown into a massive organization, the benefits of which are derided by few; yet the organization continues to foster suspicion among some people. In particular, the United States' military industrial complex, to which the Pentagon in 2010 doled out a staggering 600 billion dollars annually -- a sizeable amount even by today's standards, was cut to a quarter of its former size over time. Many people who benefited from the old organizations and ways continue to assert that ASPEN, far from eschewing military methods, trains its "facilitators" in the same way that the old military trained "soldiers". Many detractors continue to foster fears of what they call a "one world government".
In her famous speech in 2025, in relation to the first ASPEN expansion (ASPEN II), Giulini made the following remarks:
"In my father's era, fear was a global byword. Fear of the other, fear of dislocation, fear of terror. Now we embark on a new era, fraught with hope and not fear. With ASPEN, we will help the world remake itself. Not by dictating to the rest of the world what they must do, but by helping the rest of the world by listening and then responding with help with what we and they can do. Together. Like the fast growing, unquenchable tree it is named for, ASPEN will prove to the whole world that human life as a species is everlasting."
Since ASPEN's enactment, millions of ordinary Americans have learned what in their day would have been considered unachievable and even undesirable: not only facility with foreign languages, but foreign outlooks and ways of doing things – in many cases, inproved ways of doing things. And learning to help poor people globally and spread global solidarity in the process, and just as importantly, some have discovered -- bringing that knowledge home. The mission its enactors have envisioned has largely come true; the Americans who come home from ASPEN service, have been broken, and remolded and matured -- but more than that, they have helped the world and at the same time tamed the American xenophobia of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, while at the same time bringing the world closer together and inspiring other nations to make similar efforts.
ASPEN's motto: "To listen and serve, for sustainable prosperity for all" was originally derided as being too wordy in the worst case and utopian in the best, but now inspires millions of global converts.
How has America Changed?
The original days of ASPEN II were fraught with difficulty and even horror in some cases. But it must be understood that the early days of the 21st century were days of displacement globally -- the poor suffered at the hands of the rich, and sometimes this disparity even broke among cultural and national lines. America, flexing its self-believed military might, tried to force the nations of the world to its will, which at that time was highly corporatist.
ASPEN II was also resisted by much of America, at first. The rumors spread that it was forced service and relocation. Much of this is largely attributed to the fact that the enactment of ASPEN was along very military lines. Enlistees (and they are voluntary enlistees!) in ASPEN endure a "boot camp" similar to a military boot camp, and even with what are on the surface similar goals: to break down a person's individuality and build them up again, as a disciplined, hardened ..um, diplomat and helper in service to America and the world.
Oddly enough, ASPEN's use of a military paradigm for such a peaceful end initially inspired dread. Many questions were asked. Foreigners asked, "Is this a new tactic for America to force its will unto others?" while others in domestic America believed ASPEN to be a sinister brainwashing operation. Mothers who would unhesitatingly send their sons and daughters to America's military to die for its wars asked whether ASPEN would "change" their children. The answer was: "Of course. But it's just like the military".
ASPEN does use different terminology. What is to the military a "brigade" is to ASPEN a "contingent". A military division is more or less equal in size to an ASPEN "center".
Foreign countries negotiate with the United States to receive ASPEN contingents and centers. ASPEN workers and leaders are abjured from ever using force, even in the self defense of their lives -- though they may flee from danger. Fearlessness is in basic training treated as a discipline, but nobody expects someone to lay down their life for nothing. No, despite what some people say, their mission is not necessarily to accept death with equanimity!
Their exact purpose and function varies in each case and is always negotiated with the host nation before a contingent or center is emplaced. The goal is always service, but not to the leadership of a country. Very much like the Red Cross or Red Crescent in their particular functions, ASPEN assistance is always designed to elevate poor or tribal indigenous or local people with environmental sustainability and economic self-sufficiency. That goal is not always in concert with a country's goals, even though their leaders seem to agree on the surface, and that is where "horror" enters the picture.
Entire ASPEN contingents have, in fact, been murdered. Most recently, in 2026, a force of bandits led by Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe Jr. massacred an entire ASPEN contingent, through horrible means. The contingent was surrounded and then butchered one by one with machetes, rather than being simply shot.
The mass murder was once again a clarion call to action for the United States. While people in America debated the former wisdom of Bush era hostile policies toward the world in its claimed mendacity, one woman decided to use the massive defeat of her father in national politics to chart a new course.
Caroline Giulini became President largely based on a dichotomy with her father's politics -- at the time of the heyday of her father, Rudy Giuliani, she was a supporter of former senator Barack Obama (D- Illinois), though her mentor Obama did not win the Presidency at the time, either. As a candidate, she played on this dichotomy in American public opinion between aggressive exploitation and one-worldism to vault herself to the Presidency. She quickly moved, as the United States' first female president, to use existing organizations and past paradigms to enact what the politics of her campaign promised. Moreover, as a Republican President, she commanded much greater respect than if she had defected to the New Democratic Party. When she became President, ASPEN existed already; but Giulini became the foremost prophet and enactor of ASPEN II.
And as far as the aforementioned murdered ASPEN contingent: in the end, Mugabe's Massacre, as it came to be called, undermined the regime and the universal condemnation and worldwide revulsion to his actions eventually destroyed his regime.
The Present Debate
History lesson completed, let us return to the present. The debate is over and for the first time in almost a generation, the New Democrats have lost to resurgent Republicans.
There are ASPEN centers in 33 countries, and the world is a very different place. Today, there are ASPEN offshoots in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, much of Old Europe and the former Russian Republics. A Chinese version of ASPEN is starting, as well.
For the first time, it has been debated whether to place an ASPEN "center", for the purpose of domestic activity, within the continental United States of America itself. This is not, however, the battle that was lost with today's filibuster.
It has been noted by many sociologists and pollsters the increasing severity of resistance with parts of the old American South to what some people of the Old South call the "One World Agenda".
Because National Service is voluntary, and the choice between military service and ASPEN service is optional, it has been discovered that in the rump of the old south, including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and parts of Mississippi and Missouri and Kentucky, massive numbers of people choosing National Service from those states choose military service. This has created an imbalance of representation, with too many ASPEN forces being from other states, and too many U.S. military being from those states.
The ASPEN Enhancement Act (AEA, or ASPEN III) was designed to force a choice of National Service for enlistees as a random choice, as well as many other technical modifications. One such modification would be to subject the military service to the Equal American Act of 2012: Gays would then be obligatorily admitted. Many objected because some people would rather choose ASPEN, the Old South objected because many people in those states despise ASPEN and believe in a unilateral American Globalism, or American Empire. Others objected due to social factors such as the EAA.
Old-time Republicans, who still command a sizeable Congressional contingent, are understandably. true to historical form, jubilant in their victory, though it was not achieved without the assistance of many old, so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats. Because Democrats usually side with the NDP – who are still, effectively, and in terms of technical partisan identification, Democrats, victory for the Republicans was in this case was possible.
"Today we strike a blow against the forces of conformity and socialism," Byron Legion, minority Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, declaimed. "Our states have the right of self determination, and the people have spoken: defending the mainland is what we want to do!"
In conferences between House NDP (Democratic) Majority Leaders and the President, President Boxer and company have settled on a counterstrategy which is not dependent on any particular legislative action: An ASPEN center and surrounding contingents will be emplaced in Mobile, Alabama, in conference as to exact purpose with relevant state governors.
Boxer was rumored, in the conference, to have said, "we will enact ASPEN III over their dead bodies, one way or another".
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