Talks from the Hoover Institution

Panel I: Adversaries: Security in the Age of Liberal Democratic Erosion

Thursday, May 13, 2021 to 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
Elizabeth Economy is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2020, she was awarded the Richard C. Holbrooke Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin. An expert on Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Economy is the author of several books, most recently The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State (2018).

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.

Abbas Milani is a research fellow and codirector of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. In addition, Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University. His expertise is US/Iran relations and Iranian cultural, political, and security issues.

Kate Starbird is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Cyber Policy Center and Associate Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). Starbird’s research is situated within human-computer interaction (HCI) and the emerging field of crisis informatics—the study of the how information-communication technologies (ICTs) are used during crisis events. She is a co-founder and executive council member of the UW Center for an Informed Public.

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.

More Than Sharp Power: How The CCP Penetrates Taiwan And Hong Kong

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Hoover Institution hosts More Than Sharp Power: How the CCP Penetrates Taiwan and Hong Kong on Tuesday, May 11 from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. PDT.

Called “canaries in the coal mine,” Hong Kong and Taiwan have been at the forefront of the CCP's sharp power play. But Beijing’s influence operations within and toward both territories also go beyond sharp power as the term is commonly understood. This panel will discuss Beijing’s influence mechanisms and the pushbacks that the authors discovered in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other countries and discuss the most recent news about the CCP’s crackdown on Hong Kong and its impact and response from Hongkongers.

Featuring: Andrew J. Nathan Professor of Political Science Columbia University, Wu Jieh-min Research Fellow Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Ma Ngok, Associate Professor Chinese University of Hong Kong. Followed by conversation with: Glenn Tiffert, Research Fellow Hoover Institution.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Andrew J. Nathan is Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. His teaching and research interests include Chinese politics and foreign policy, the comparative study of political participation and political culture, and human rights. Nathan’s books include Chinese Democracy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985); The Tiananmen Papers, co-edited with Perry Link (New York: PublicAffairs, 2001); China’s Search for Security, co-authored with Andrew Scobell (Columbia University Press, 2012); and Will China Democratize?, co-edited with Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). Nathan has served at Columbia as director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, 1991-1995, chair of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 2002-2003, and chair of the Department of Political Science, 2003-2006. He is currently chair of the Morningside Institutional Review Board (IRB). Off campus, he is the regular Asia and Pacific book reviewer for Foreign Affairs, a member of the steering committee of the Asian Barometer Survey, and a board member of Human Rights in China. He is a former member of the boards of the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch. 

Wu Jieh-min is a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, and served as a director at the Center for Contemporary China, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. He is on the advisory committee of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council and a former board member of the Straits Exchange Foundation. His research interests include political economy, political sociology, social movement, democratization, and civil society. His articles have been published in Chinese-language, English, and Japanese journals and edited volumes. His books include Rent-Seeking Developmental State in China: Taishang, Guangdong Model and Global Capitalism (NTU Press, 2019; English and Japanese editions in progress), China’s influence in the Centre-periphery Tug of War in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific (co-edited with Brian C.H. Fong and Andrew J. Nathan eds., Routledge, 2021), Anaconda in the Chandelier: Mechanisms of Influence and Resistance in the “China Factor” (co-edited with Tsai Hung-jeng and Cheng Tsu-bang, Rive Gauche, 2017; Japanese edition forthcoming by Hakusuisha), Third View of China (Rive Gauche, 2012), The Era of Significant Changes: Taiwan 1990-2010 (co-edited with Fan Yun and Thomas Hung-chi Kuo, Rive Gauche, 2010/2014), and The Double Helix of Power and Capital: A Taiwanese Perspective of China/Cross-Strait Studies (editor, Rive Gauche, 2013). He co-produced a documentary film Taiwanese Compatriots (Taibao) (Alleys Studio, 1993).

Ma Ngok is an Associate Professor at the Department of Government and Public Administration, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He writes extensively on elections, party politics, democratization, and social movements of Hong Kong. He is the author of Political Development in Hong Kong: State, Political Society and CIvil Society, and more than 20 journal articles on Hong Kong politics.

 

Ancestors: Where do we come from and why do we care?

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.

What’s Next For U.S.-Taiwan Economic Relations?

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 

Fir and Empire

Friday, April 30, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

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.

A Conversation With Senator Rick Scott

Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Senator Rick Scott in conversation with Niall Ferguson on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 12:00 PM ET.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Niall Ferguson MA, D.Phil., is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior fellow of the Center for European Studies, Harvard, where he served for twelve years as the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History. He is also a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. His next book Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, will be released on May 4, 2021.

Rick Scott was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 and is currently serving his first term representing the state of Florida. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Rick Scott served two terms as the 45th Governor of Florida, working every day to turn around Florida’s economy and secure the state’s future as the best place for families and businesses to succeed.

For more information go to: https://www.hoover.org/publications/capital-conversations 

The United States, China, And Taiwan—A Strategy To Prevent War

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

The Hoover Institution hosts The United States, China, and Taiwan—A Strategy to Prevent War on Thursday, April 15 from 9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. PT.

On behalf of its projects on China’s Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, and its National Security Task Force, the Hoover Institution invites you to The United States, China, and Taiwan—A Strategy to Prevent War.

Robert Blackwill and Philip Zelikow introduce their recent report on the growing danger of war between China and the United States over Taiwan and propose a new US strategy to prevent it. Following their presentation, Hoover Institution fellows General James Mattis (ret.) and Admiral James Ellis (ret.) will offer remarks. The program will conclude with audience questions.

Featuring Robert D. Blackwill, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, and Philip D. Zelikow, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and White Burkett Miller Professor of History and J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance, Miller Center, University of Virginia.

Followed by remarks from Admiral James O. Ellis Jr. (ret), Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, and General James Mattis (ret), Davies Family Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution. Moderated by Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI)

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Robert D. Blackwill is the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His current work focuses on US foreign policy writ large as well as on China, Russia, the Middle East, South Asia, and geoeconomics. As deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for strategic planning under President George W. Bush, Blackwill was responsible for governmentwide policy planning to help develop and coordinate the mid- and long-term direction of US foreign policy. He also served as presidential envoy to Iraq. Blackwill went to the National Security Council after serving as the US ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003. He is the recipient of the 2007 Bridge-Builder Award for his role in transforming US-India relations. In 2016 he became the first US ambassador to India since John Kenneth Galbraith to receive the Padma Bhushan Award from the government of India for distinguished service of a high order.

Philip Zelikow is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the White Burkett Miller Professor of History and J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the Miller Center, both University of Virginia, where he has also served as dean of the graduate school and director of the Miller Center. His scholarly work has focused on critical episodes in American and world history. He was a trial and appellate lawyer and then a career diplomat before taking academic positions at Harvard, then Virginia. Before and during his academic career, he has served at all levels of American government. His federal service during five administrations has included positions in the White House, State Department, and the Pentagon. His last full-time government position was as counselor of the Department of State, a deputy to Secretary Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Zelikow is one of the few individuals ever to serve on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board under presidents of both major parties, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has also been a member of the Defense Policy Board for Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and a member of the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2020, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

James O. Ellis Jr. is an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, focusing on energy and national security policies. In 2004, Admiral Ellis completed his 39-year US Navy career as commander of US Strategic Command. His service included carrier-based tours with three fighter squadrons and command of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. He has two graduate engineering degrees, is a graduate of the Navy Nuclear Power Training Program, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. From 2005 to 2012, he led the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, during the Fukushima response.

General James Mattis, US Marine Corps (ret.), is the Hoover Institution's Davies Family Distinguished Fellow, after having served as the nation’s 26th Secretary of Defense. He served for over 40 years in the US Marine Corps as an infantry officer, plus duty in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as NATO supreme allied commander, and as commander of US Central Command, directing 250,000 US and allied troops in combat across the Middle East and South Asia.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He chairs the Hoover Institution's projects on China’s Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. He has authored or edited more than fifty books on democracy, including his recent Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency. During 2017–18, he cochaired, with Orville Schell, a Hoover Institution–Asia Society working group, which produced the report China’s Influence and American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance.

State Of Education: One Year Into COVID

Thursday, April 15, 2021
Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Senior Chancellor Eric Hall and Education Commissioner Michael Johnson in conversation with Caroline Hoxby on Thursday, April 15, 2021 at 2:00 PM ET.

For more information go to: https://www.hoover.org/publications/capital-conversations

Grain, Globalization, and Gallipoli

Monday, March 15, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

Globalization dominates our world today--yet its strategic implications are rarely considered.  What happens when a globalized economic system receives a shock not from an economic or epidemiological event, but from a war, when actors are deliberately attempting to exacerbate the derangement?  This talk explores efforts by the British government to ensure food security, especially the critically important supply of grain, first in the pre-1914 globalized economy and then after the outbreak of World War I.  The history of these efforts may help us to think through the scale and scope of possible international conflict in the 21st century. 

Nick Lambert was educated at the University of Oxford in economics and in history.  He subsequently held fellowships at Yale, Oxford, and Australian National University.  Between 2016 and 2018, he was the “Class of 1957 Chair in Naval History and Heritage” at the United States Naval Academy.  His major publications include Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution (1999) and Planning Armageddon (2012).  His most recent book, The War Lords and the Gallipoli Disaster (2021), was published last month by Oxford University Press. 

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.

China's Battle For Global Public Opinion

The Hoover Institution hosts China's Battle for Global Public Opinion on Tuesday, April 13 from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. PT.

The Chinese Communist Party's efforts to shape global narratives go beyond just “telling China’s story.” They also include coercive and covert tactics that may undermine democratic norms, violate local laws, and weaken independent media. Ms. Cook will unpack the challenges that Xi Jinping’s self-described campaign to win the public opinion “battlefield” poses to media freedom worldwide, address how governments, tech firms, and civil society organizations are responding, and offer recommendations for effectively enhancing those initiatives.

Featuring Ms. Sarah Cook, Research Director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Freedom House. Followed by conversation with Dr. Glenn Tiffert, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Sarah Cook is Research Director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House, an NGO focused on political rights and civil liberties. She directs the China Media Bulletin, a monthly digest in English and Chinese providing news and analysis on media freedom developments related to China. Ms. Cook is the author of several Asian country reports for Freedom House’s annual publications, as well as four special reports about China, including: Beijing's Global Megaphone (2020), and The Battle for China’s Spirit (2017). She has twice served as an NGO delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva. In 2021, she published a report on China’s Global Media Footprint with the National Endowment for Democracy.

Dr. Glenn Tiffert is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he manages its project on China’s Global Sharp Power. A historian of modern China, Dr. Tiffert works closely with government and civil society partners in the United States and elsewhere around the world to document and build resilience against authoritarian interference with democratic institutions, particularly in the knowledge sector.