346.6K
Downloads
234
Episodes
Talks and interviews from Hoover Institution events.
Episodes
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Monday, May 24, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The USSR had thrived during the nuclear revolution of the 1950s, matching America's ability to produce powerful missiles and destructive warheads. But accuracy eluded the USSR. Precision strike was produced by miniaturizing computing power, so it was limited by the capacity of the computer chips crammed into the nose of each missile. The Soviets faced fundamental challenges in their ability to fabricate tiny circuits. Their guidance systems were therefore always substantially less accurate. In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter had authorized multiple new highly accurate weapons systems taking advantage of Silicon Valley's most advanced integrated circuits. By the 1980s, when these systems began to be deployed, the USSR had no response. Soviet defense officials feared that a precision conventional strike from the U.S. might even disable the USSR's nuclear forces. Ronald Reagan inherited a Soviet leadership convinced that it had already lost the arms race because it could not produce the computational power needed for precision weaponry.
Chris Miller is assistant professor of international history at The Fletcher School at Tufts University and co-director of the school's Russia and Eurasia Program. He is author of We Shall Be Masters: Russia's Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin (2021), Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia (2018) and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy (2016). He has previously served as the associate director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, a lecturer at the New Economic School in Moscow, a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research associate at the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Academy.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
https://www.hoover.org/research-teams/history-working-group
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.
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
Monday, May 24, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The Hoover Institution and the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society hosts Toward a Democratic China: What Role Can Outsiders Play? on Monday, May 24 from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. PDT.
Is there an appetite for democracy in China? Is the regime’s monopoly on political power invincible? Can and should outsiders help Chinese reformers achieve democracy? If so, how? Is regime change possible, anytime soon? Will it lead to democracy or chaos?
Featuring: Roger Garside Former British diplomat, Teng Biao Pozen Visiting Professor, University of Chicago Grove Human Rights Scholar, Hunter College, CUN, Elizabeth Economy Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution and Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, Orville Schell Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations Asia Society, and Glenn Tiffert Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Robert Garside served as a British diplomat in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution and again in 1976-9, when Mao died and Deng launched the Reform Era. His new book China Coup: The Great Leap to Freedom (University of California Press, 2021) challenges readers to rethink China’s political future.
Teng Biao is an academic lawyer, currently Grove Human Rights Scholar at Hunter College, and Pozen Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. He is the founder and president of China Against the Death Penalty.
Elizabeth Economy is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
HOSTS:
Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.- China Relations at the Asia Society, New York City. He is a former professor and dean at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Glenn Tiffert is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a historian of modern China. He manages the Hoover project on China’s Global Sharp Power.
Friday May 21, 2021
Friday May 21, 2021
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The Hoover Institution along with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Europe Center host Security in the Age of Liberal Democratic Erosion on Thursday, May 13 and Thursday, May 20.
Cosponsored by the Hoover Institution, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Europe Center, the virtual two-part panel series Security in the Age of Liberal Democratic Erosion will focus on the critical security challenges facing liberal democracies and examine the threats of external adversaries and how democracies can respond.
Liberal democracy rests on the rule of law and common trust in fundamental institutions such as elections, courts, legislatures, and the executive branches of government. Yet both in the United States and elsewhere, trust in these institutions has eroded as charges of fake news, electoral fraud, biased courts, and increased authoritarianism have taken hold.
On May 13, 2021, the discussion will focus on Adversaries: how foreign actors such as Russia, China, and Iran interact with domestic threats to institutions and the functioning of liberal democracy. Panelists will examine dangers of sharp and soft power, misinformation, and attacks on sensitive electoral and physical infrastructure. The featured experts will be Elizabeth Economy, Michael McFaul, Abbas Milani, and Kate Starbird.
On May 20, 2021, the discussion will focus on appropriate Responses, and whether and how liberal democracies should respond to these threats. Panelists will address the tools and policies available to combat such hazards, as well as their limitations. The featured experts will be Rose Gottemoeller, H. R. McMaster, Jacquelyn Schneider, and Amy Zegart.
Both panel discussions will be moderated by Anna Grzymala-Busse and held at 10:00–11:15 am PDT via Zoom and are open to the public.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Rose Gottemoeller is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. She also serves as the Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and its Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).
H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michele Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and was the twenty-sixth assistant to the president for national security affairs. He served as a commissioned officer in the US Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a lieutenant general in June 2018. He is author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World (2020).
Jacquelyn Schneider is a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology, national security, and political psychology with a special interest in cybersecurity, unmanned technologies, and Northeast Asia. She is a non-resident fellow at the Naval War College's Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute and a senior policy advisor to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
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.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Anna Grzymala-Busse is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Grzymala-Busse is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Europe Center, and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford. Her research focuses on religion and politics, authoritarian political parties and their successors, and the historical development of the state.
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Senator Rob Portman in conversation with Lanhee Chen on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at 3:00 PM ET.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Senator Rob Portman is a United States Senator from the state of Ohio. During his time in the Senate, he has introduced more than 240 bills, including 200 bipartisan bills, and more than 150 of his legislative priorities have been signed into law. Senator Portman began his government career in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1993, serving the Second District in southern Ohio for 12 years. In 2005, he left Congress to serve as the United States Trade Representative. Following his accomplishments in this role, he was asked to serve another Cabinet post, as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Lanhee Chen is the David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, and Director of Domestic Policy Studies in the Public Policy Program at Stanford. In 2012, he was policy director of the Romney-Ryan campaign and advised Senator Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential bid. He was a member of the Social Security Advisory Board and served as a senior appointee at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the George W. Bush Administration.
For more information go to: https://www.hoover.org/publications/capital-conversations
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
The Hoover Institution hosts Russia: Empire, War, and Revolution on Thursday, May 13, 2021, at 10am PDT.
Join the Hoover Institution Press for a discussion of two recent publications based on the acclaimed Russian collections held at the Hoover Library & Archives, moderated by Russian historian Robert Service.
Russia in War and Revolution: The Memoirs of Fyodor Sergeyevich Olferieff features the previously unpublished memoirs of a Russian military officer who participated in key transformative historical events, including World War I and the Russian Revolution. Gary Hamburg, volume editor and author of the book’s introduction and companion essay; and the subject’s granddaughter Tanya Alexandra Cameron, who translated his memoirs, will participate in the discussion. Next, author Anatol Shmelev will discuss his book the Wake of Empire: Anti-Bolshevik Russia in International Affairs, 1917–1920, which examines Russia’s place in international affairs in the years after the fall of the Russian Empire, when the anti-Bolshevik “Whites” fought to maintain a “Great, United Russia.”
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Robert Service, a noted Russian historian and political commentator, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford.
Gary Hamburg is Otho M. Behr Professor of History at Claremont McKenna College and author or editor of more than seventy works, including Russia's Path toward Enlightenment: Faith, Politics, and Reason, 1500–1801.
Tanya Alexandra Cameron is the granddaughter of Fyodor Sergeyevich Olferieff. She learned Russian and Russian history and traveled extensively to the Soviet Union in order to translate his memoirs.
Anatol Shmelev is a research fellow and Robert Conquest Curator for Russia and Eurasia at the Hoover Institution. His area of specialization is the Russian Civil War, 1917–22.
Thursday May 13, 2021
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Monday May 10, 2021
Monday May 10, 2021
Monday, May 10, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Everyone comes from somewhere. From the doctor’s office to the passport office, from whom we've descended affects the biological, legal, and cultural identities of just about everybody in the world today. How did ancestry come to play such a critical role in defining status, and what are the implications of this history for the politics of lineage in the genomic age?
Maya Jasanoff is the X.D. and Nancy Yang Professor of Arts and Sciences and Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University. She is the author of the prize-winning books Edge of Empire, Liberty’s Exiles, and most recently The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World, winner of the 2018 Cundill Prize in History. Jasanoff is a frequent contributor to publications including The New Yorker and The Guardian, and is chair of judges for the 2021 Booker Prize.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
https://www.hoover.org/research-teams/history-working-group
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.
Friday May 07, 2021
Friday May 07, 2021
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, and the National Security Task Force the Hoover Institution hosts a conversation on, What’s Next for U.S.-Taiwan Economic Relations?, on Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 4:00 PM PT.
Innovation has been a source of comparative advantage for Taiwan—and an important basis for American firms, investors, and government to support Taiwan’s development while expanding mutually beneficial linkages. Yet Taiwan’s innovation advantage is eroding in the face of technological change and strategic risk. What should the next phase of U.S.-Taiwan economic cooperation look like? And how can the new U.S. administration work with Taiwan not just to build on legacy advantages, like in semiconductors, but also to invest in the emerging fields that are rapidly reshaping the future of work, industry, service delivery, and defense? Featuring Dr. Evan Feigenbaum Vice President for Studies Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Followed by conversation with Kharis Ali Templeman Hoover Research Fellow.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, where he is now a practitioner senior fellow. Initially an academic, with a PhD in Chinese politics from Stanford University, his career has spanned government service, think tanks, the private sector, and three regions of Asia. During the George W. Bush Administration, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia, and Member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific.
Kharis Templeman is Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he manages the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific, and a lecturer at Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies. His areas of expertise include democratic transitions and consolidations, comparative parties and elections, and the politics of Taiwan. He is the editor (with Larry Diamond and Yun-han Chu) of Taiwan’s Democracy Challenged: The Chen Shui-bian Years (2016) and Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan: The Ma Ying-jeou Years (2020). His other peer-reviewed research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Ethnopolitics, The Taiwan Journal of Democracy, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, and The APSA Annals of Comparative Democratization, along with several book chapters.
Click the following link for more information about the Hoover Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region
https://www.hoover.org/research-teams/hoover-institution-project-taiwan-indo-pacific-region
Sunday May 02, 2021
Sunday May 02, 2021
Forestry was important to state-building efforts in the early modern world. Timber and fuel were strategic goods needed for shipbuilding, civil engineering, urban construction, iron smelting, and coin minting. States with forest endowments, including France, Venice, many German states, Japan, and Korea, developed rules and institutions to better control domestic supplies. States without substantial domestic woodlands, including England, Holland, and Genoa, turned to imports. Because it had neither a large forestry bureaucracy nor chartered merchant companies, China was often assumed to lack an effective forestry system entirely.
In fact, states in China had long relied on a third strategy: a domestic forest market dominated by small-scale, private producers. As early as 1150, and with growing prevalence after 1500, landowners began to invest in planting timber. They registered their property with the government, creating a de facto private property regime. And they used private litigation–formally illegal–as they developed simple land deeds and tenancy contracts into timber securities. In the short term, this forestry market looked arguably more modern than its contemporaries; in the long-run, it may have short-circuited the development of land oversight, environmental science, and long-distance trade.
Please click here to read the the foreword to Fir and Empire.
Ian M. Miller is Assistant Professor of History at St. John’s University in New York. He is the author of Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China(University of Washington Press, 2020). His current research is on the role of lineage organizations in regulating village environments, provisionally titled “Ancestral Shade: Kinship and Ecology in South China.”
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.