Talks from the Hoover Institution

Wargame Design and Social Science

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The Hoover Institution hosts Wargaming: Its History, Application, and Future Use on February 16, February 23, and March 16, 2022.

The February 23 session focuses on a discussion about wargame design and analysis and the role of social science and experimental research in wargame development.

The Hoover Institution invites you to join leading historians, political scientists, and national security decision-makers as they discuss the role that wargames that have played in international relations, how social science can help guide wargame design and analysis, and the future applications of wargames for policy problems and academic research. Based off the recently published article, "Wargaming for International Relations," the series is moderated by authors, Dr. Jackie Schneider, Hoover Fellow, Hoover Institution, Dr. Reid Pauly, Brown University, and Dr. Erik Lin-Greenberg, MIT.

Spies, Lies, And Algorithms: A Conversation With Amy Zegart And Condoleezza Rice

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Hoover Institution hosts Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: A Conversation with Amy Zegart and Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, February 22 from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. PT. 

Please join us for a conversation with Amy Zegart as part of her tour with her new book Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence. The conversation will be moderated by Director Condoleezza Rice with an introduction by Michael McFaul.

“Today we face a critical juncture for American spy agencies, as big as 9/11 — only most people don’t know it,” says Amy B. Zegart, one of the country’s leading experts on intelligence and a professor at Stanford University. “New dangers come from tech, not terrorists. Emerging technologies like AI and social media are weakening the strong and empowering the weak, fundamentally changing dynamics of international conflict. To be blunt: The U.S. is losing its intelligence advantage.”

To help us better understand these looming threats, Zegart has written Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence (Princeton University Press; February 1, 2022). It’s the first comprehensive book on the past, present, and future of American intelligence—and outlines what’s urgently needed to protect our nation today. The book draws on over thirty years of research (including new research just for this book) and hundreds of interviews with current and former intelligence officials. 

Weak intelligence makes us more vulnerable to attacks on our power grids, water supply, elections, corporate network servers, and nuclear weapons. Helping the American public better understand these evolving threats is crucial.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Amy Zegart is the Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. She is also a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Chair of Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence and International Security Steering Committee, and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. She specializes in U.S. intelligence, emerging technologies and national security, grand strategy, and global political risk management. The author of five books, Zegart’s award-winning research includes the leading academic study of intelligence failures before 9/11 — Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 (Princeton 2007). Her forthcoming book, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms (Princeton 2022) examines technological challenges to American intelligence. Zegart’s research has been published in The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. She has served on the NSC staff, advised senior officials about intelligence and foreign policy, and most recently served as a commissioner on the 2020 CSIS Technology and Intelligence Task Force. She received an A.B. in East Asian studies magna cum laude from Harvard University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.

Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and its Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy. She is also a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm. Rice currently serves on the board of online-storage technology company Dropbox, energy software company C3, and Makena Capital, a private endowment firm; and is a member of the boards of the George W. Bush Institute, the Commonwealth Club, the Aspen Institute, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Previously, Rice served on various additional boards, including those of KiOR Inc., the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the Transamerica Corporation, the Hewlett-Packard Company, the University of Notre Dame, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. From 2005 to 2009, Rice served as the sixty-sixth secretary of state of the United States, the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as assistant to the president for National Security Affairs for President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, the first woman to hold this position.

Michael A. McFaul is the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution as well as a professor of political science, director and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He also currently works as a news analyst for NBC.  His areas of expertise include international relations, Russian politics, comparative democratization, and American foreign policy.  From January 2012 to February 2014, he served as the US ambassador to the Russian Federation.  Before becoming ambassador, he served for three years as a special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council. 

A Discussion On Russia And Ukraine

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

Peter Meijer in conversation with Michael McFaul on Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Peter Meijer represents Michigan’s Third Congressional District. He served in the Army Reserves and was deployed to Iraq as a non-commissioned officer conducting intelligence operations to protect American and allied forces. In Congress, Meijer serves on the Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, and Space, Science & Technology Committees.

Michael A. McFaul is the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution as well as a professor of political science, director and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. From January 2012 to February 2014, he served as the US ambassador to the Russian Federation.  Before that, he served for three years as a special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council.

Talking About Trade: Prospects And Challenges In U.S.-Taiwan Economic Ties

Monday, February 7, 2022

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Hoover Institution hosts Talking about Trade: Prospects and Challenges in U.S.-Taiwan Economic Ties on Monday, February 7, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. PT.

U.S.-Taiwan economic ties are at a crossroads. In 2020, President Tsai Ing-wen lifted a ban on U.S. pork imports containing the feed additive ractopamine, removing a long-standing irritant in trade relations with the United States. Last summer, the Biden administration held bilateral talks with their Taiwan counterparts under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) for the first time since 2016. In more recent months, the two sides have begun additional discussions about strengthening the resilience of global supply chains, including the supply of one of Taiwan’s most strategically important exports: semiconductors. In this discussion, Wendy Cutler of the Asia Society will comment on these developments and the prospects for deepening U.S.-Taiwan economic relations in a moderated conversation with Hoover Research Fellow Kharis Templeman.

Hoover Book Club: Amy B. Zegart On ”Spies, Lies, And Algorithms”

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

Join the Hoover Book Club for engaging discussions with leading authors on the hottest policy issues of the day. Hoover scholars explore the latest books that delve into some of the most vexing policy issues facing the United States and the world. Find out what makes these authors tick and how they think we should approach our most difficult challenges.

A discussion with Amy B. Zegart on her latest book, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms moderated by Bill Whalen on Tuesday, February 1st at 10AM PT/1:00PM ET.

China On The Eve Of The Winter Olympics: Hard Choices For The World’s Democracies

Monday, January 31, 2022

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Hoover Project on China’s Global Sharp Power invites you to China on the Eve of the Winter Olympics: Hard Choices for the World’s Democracies on Monday, January 31, 2022 from 10:00 am - 11:30 am PT.

As China prepares to host the Winter Olympics, its economy is slowing, its real estate sector is in crisis, and its push for regional dominance is alarming its neighbors. At the 20th Party Congress this October, Xi Jinping is expected to win a third term as China’s ruler. What do these developments portend for China and the world, and how should the United States respond?

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SPEAKERS
George Soros is the founder of Soros Fund Management and the founder and chair of the Open Society Foundations. He began his philanthropic work in 1979 with scholarships for Black African university students in South Africa and for East European dissidents to study in the West. He has given away more than $32bn to advance rights and justice across the world.

Matt Pottinger is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Pottinger served the White House for four years in senior roles on the National Security Council staff, including as deputy national security advisor from 2019 to 2021. In that role, he coordinated the full spectrum of national security policy. He previously served as senior director for Asia, where he led the administration’s work on the Indo-Pacific region, in particular its shift on China policy.

Oriana Skylar Mastro is a center fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Skylar Mastro continues to serve in the United States Air Force Reserve for which she works as a strategic planner at INDOPACOM. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.

MODERATOR
Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, ​Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He co-chairs the Hoover Institution’s programs on China’s Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region.

INTRODUCTION
Glenn Tiffert is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a historian of modern China. He co-chairs the Hoover project on China’s Global Sharp Power and works closely with government and civil society partners to document and build resilience against authoritarian interference with democratic institutions. Most recently, he co-authored and edited Global Engagement: Rethinking Risk in the Research Enterprise (2020).

WITH PARTICIPATION FROM
Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society and former dean and professor at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Schell is the author of ten books about China, including most recently Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century (2013).

How to Tackle a Fifty-Year-Old Myth? Kennedy, Lodge, and the Diem Coup

Friday, January 21, 2022

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Diem Coup, in November 1963, resulted in the overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. The coup caused great instability and led to the deployment of the first U.S. Marines to the beaches of Danang in March 1965, paving the way for full-blown American military involvement in Vietnam. The history of the coup, including the leading role of U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., was established through the dramatic leak of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. After more than 50 interviews with Lodge’s former colleagues, Luke Nichter began to challenge the coup’s conventional history, ultimately uncovering a secret recording of Kennedy and Lodge from August 15, 1963, transcribed and made public for the first time, which shifts our understanding of the coup’s origin.

Luke A. Nichter is a Professor of History and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University. His area of specialty is the Cold War, the modern presidency, and U.S. political and diplomatic history, with a focus on the "long 1960s" from John F. Kennedy through Watergate. He is a noted expert on Richard Nixon's 3,432 hours of secret White House tapes, and a New York Times bestselling author or editor of seven books, the most recent of which is The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War. 

Luke’s next book project, under contract with Yale University Press, is tentatively titled The Making of the President, 1968: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and the Election that Changed America, for which he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for 2020-2021. The book draws on interviews with approximately 85 family members and former staffers, in addition to extensive archival research involving first-time access to a number of key collections that will recast our understanding of the 1968 election.

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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
This talk is part of the History Working Group Seminar Series. A central piece of the History Working Group is the seminar series, which is hosted in partnership with the Hoover Library & Archives. The seminar series was launched in the fall of 2019, and thus far has included six talks from Hoover research fellows, visiting scholars, and Stanford faculty. The seminars provide outside experts with an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on their work. While the lunch seminars have grown in reputation, they have been purposefully kept small in order to ensure that the discussion retains a good seminar atmosphere.

Hoover Book Club: Stephen Haber On ”The Battle over Patents: History and Politics of Innovation”

Monday, December 6, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Join the Hoover Book Club for engaging discussions with leading authors on the hottest policy issues of the day. Hoover scholars explore the latest books that delve into some of the most vexing policy issues facing the United States and the world. Find out what makes these authors tick and how they think we should approach our most difficult challenges. 

In our latest installment, watch a discussion with Stephen Haber who is the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and an editor of The Battle over Patents: History and Politics of Innovation.  Stephen is joined by contributors; Alexander Galetovic (Hoover Research Fellow) and Gerardo Con Diaz (former Hoover National Fellow).

A discussion with Stephen Haber on his latest book, The Battle over Patents: History and Politics of Innovation moderated by Bill Whalen on Monday, December 6 at 10AM PT/1:00PM ET.

Slave Prices in New York and New Jersey

Friday, December 3, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

Michael Douma will be sharing a chapter from his new book on the cultural and economic history of Dutch slavery in New York. There is a long-established view that slavery in New York was neither efficient nor profitable, or perhaps only marginally profitable in its early years. And yet for two hundred years New Yorkers paid to acquire slaves to be put to labor for profit, not just to serve as household decoration. There were some 22,000 slaves in New York across the 18th century who could speak Dutch. Using novel archeological, bills of sale, newspaper, and probate records, the chapter demonstrates that slavery was a long-term investment in New York and that the prices of slaves remained stable over the long run.

Michael Douma is assistant research professor at Georgetown University, where he serves as the Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics. His research focuses on 19^th century US history, the Dutch world, and the philosophy and methods of history. He is the author of The Colonization of Freed African Americans in Suriname, Veneklasen Brick: The Liberal Approach to the Past, and Creative Historical Writing.

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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
This talk is part of the History Working Group Seminar Series. A central piece of the History Working Group is the seminar series, which is hosted in partnership with the Hoover Library & Archives. The seminar series was launched in the fall of 2019, and thus far has included six talks from Hoover research fellows, visiting scholars, and Stanford faculty. The seminars provide outside experts with an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on their work. While the lunch seminars have grown in reputation, they have been purposefully kept small in order to ensure that the discussion retains a good seminar atmosphere.

The Last King Of America: The Misunderstood Reign Of George III

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Hauck Auditorium | Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Hoover Institution hosts The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 from 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM PT in Hauck Auditorium, at the Hoover Institution.

Please join the Hoover Institution's Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict for a talk with Andrew Roberts, author of The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III. The discussion is hosted by Hoover Senior Fellow, Victor Davis Hanson. Please RSVP by November 29, 2021.

Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon: a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities (picture the preening, spitting, and pompous version in Hamilton). But in 2017, the Queen of England put 200,000 pages of the Georgian kings’ private papers online, about half of which related to George III, and these papers have forced a full-scale reinterpretation of the king’s life and reign. Roberts, an award-winning investigative historian (Churchill, Napoleon), had unprecedented access to these archives. The result is the first biography of King George III in fifty years, and the definitive one for our generation. The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III will reverse this maligned monarch’s reputation, showing that George III was in fact a wise, humane, and even enlightened monarch who was beset by talented enemies, debilitating mental illness, incompetent ministers, and disastrous luck.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Roberts is the bestselling author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny; Leadership in War The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War; Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945; Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble; and Napoleon: A Life, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and a finalist for the Plutarch Award. He has won many other prizes, including the Wolfson History Prize and the British Army Military Book of the Year. He is the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a Lehrman Institute Distinguished Fellow at the New-York Historical Society, and a visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College, London.

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; his focus is classics and military history. Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991–92), the annual Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Visiting Fellow in History at Hillsdale College (2004–), the Visiting Shifron Professor of Military History at the US Naval Academy (2002–3),and the William Simon Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University (2010).