Hoover Institution - Hoover Digest - Hoover Digest 2006 No. 4

Five Years On
After five years of “cowboy diplomacy,” the bad guys are on the run and the global village is a safer place. Maybe the sheriff has been doing something right after all. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Drifting toward the Brink
Once Iran and North Korea develop nuclear weapons, it’s only a matter of time before international terrorist organizations get their hands on them. Thomas Sowell on dark days ahead.

Global Financial Warriors
John B. Taylor began serving as the head of international finance at the Treasury Department just three months before September 11 changed everything. In this excerpt from his new book, Taylor tells the story of the small band of warriors he led in the financial war on terror.

Sending a Message
With a new law on military commissions, Congress sent the Supreme Court a message, loud and clear: Get out of the war on terror. By John Yoo.

Strategic Foreign Assistance
How to stop terrorism at its source. By A. Lawrence Chickering, Isobel Coleman, P. Edward Haley, and Emily Vargas-Baron.

The Middle East

Solution and Resolution
The road to peace in Lebanon runs through Damascus. The only question is whether Syria is more interested in real estate or in supporting terrorism. By Abraham D. Sofaer.

White Guilt and Radical Islam
White guilt obscures the crucial reality in the Middle East: History has left the Islamic world behind. Shelby Steele on the massive sense of inferiority that so enrages Islamic militants.

The Phony Cease-Fire
The cease-fire in Lebanon handcuffs Israel while letting Hezbollah reload. Will the United Nations never learn? By Thomas Sowell.

What Ahmadinejad Thinks He's Doing
Hezbollah is Iran’s tool in exporting revolution. But a lot of the power brokers in Tehran don’t want to risk their $70 billion a year in oil loot on a group of crazies in southern Lebanon. By Abbas Milani.

Intelligence

The Job the FBI Can't Do
A tale of two cultures—spies and cops—and why they just won’t mix in a single agency. Richard A. Posner on how to remake domestic intelligence.

How to Fix the CIA
The CIA is in a state of serious disrepair, and a veritable revolution will be required to fix it. Reuel Marc Gerecht explains.

The Budget

Porkbusters
The congressional addiction to pork—and how the president can force the Hill to kick the habit. A primer by James C. Miller III.

Economics

Don't Talk the Talk
John B. Taylor on Ben Bernanke’s first months. The new Fed chairman’s only mistake? Talking about the Fed funds rate when he should have been talking about the economy.

The Right Minimum Wage? Zero
David R. Henderson examines the minimum-wage debate, separating a little bit of sense from a great deal of nonsense.

Regulation

The FDA at 100
As the FDA heads into a second century, its fundamental flaws are more apparent than ever. Why the FDA can’t (or won’t) reform itself. By Henry I. Miller.

Education

Don't Know Much ’bout History
Chester E. Finn Jr. and Martin A. Davis Jr. on the lamentably low state standards for teaching world history.

How to Succeed without Really Trying
School “reform” is fine with the teachers unions—as long as it doesn’t really change anything. Terry M. Moe explains how to reform the reforms.

China

The Dragon Next Door
How China and the United States can learn to become good neighbors—and why they must. By Thomas A. Metzger.

Protectionism and the “China Problem”
Why the United States should stop complaining about the trade deficit and embrace Beijing's commitment to a market economy. By Robert J. Barro.

Europe

Why Montenegro Matters
“Sometimes good fences do eventually make good neighbors.” Timothy Garton Ash on Montenegro’s vote for independence from Serbia.

Egypt

The End of the Liberty Doctrine?
President Bush’s retreat on democracy in Egypt has implications far beyond Cairo. Every regime in the Middle East is paying close attention. By Michael McFaul and Amr Hamzawy.

Cuba

Fidel Castro, Past Tense
Whether he lives or dies, Fidel has ceased to govern Cuba. What the United States should do now. By William Ratliff and Roger Fontaine.

The Man Castro Couldn't Crack
As Cuba's human rights violations continue to make a mockery of the United Nations, Arnold Beichman tells the story of one man who stood tall in the midst of terrible oppression.

History and Culture

Trading Places
Could Nueva España and New England have been reversed? Niall
Ferguson explores the very divergent paths of the British and Spanish colonial empires.

The Man Who Launched the Green Revolution
Norman Borlaug changed the face of modern agriculture by combining good science and common sense—a shocking contrast to the naysayers and environmental extremists who are driving the agenda today. By Henry I. Miller.

Liberty

Free Markets and the Perils of Compensation
It is a cruel reality of the free marketplace that some individuals are hurt while others prosper. But Richard A. Epstein explains that the state must not intervene to provide protection from competitive losses.

Libertarian Justice
“Some critics of classical liberalism and libertarianism have suggested that community life is alien to libertarians. Not so. People flourish best among other people, provided those others do not thwart their freedom.” By Tibor R. Machan.

Interview

George Shultz, on the Record
From Iraq to advising Governor Schwarzenegger to demographics in China to his (alleged) Princeton tattoo—a free-wheeling interview with George P. Shultz.

Hoover Archives

The “Russian Idea” of Nikolai Berdyaev
The Hoover Archives contain a large collection of writings by the Russian émigré intellectual Nikolai Berdyaev, many of which were published in obscure Parisian émigré journals. Berdyaev’s writings illustrate the profound paradoxes of Russian messianism, which continue to confound many Russians today. By David Satter.