Tech Track 2

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The Tech Track 2 (TT2) initiative is designed to foster deeper cooperation between US government leaders, tech executives, and distinguished academics on urgent national security challenges. Advanced research and emerging technologies have long been a cornerstone of US global leadership, but the cultural divide between Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley, exacerbated by outdated government policies, undermines America’s ability to leverage its capacity for innovation on behalf of US national interests. TT2 seeks to break down barriers between the government, industry, and academia, and inspire partnerships that reinforce US advantages critical to protecting liberal democratic values, fostering prosperity, and preserving peace worldwide.

At its core, TT2 is about building a strong community of interest among change-makers. Regular, private convenings harness the wisdom of an expert crowd with diverse professional backgrounds to enhance understanding of current opportunities and challenges within the national security space while identifying actionable solutions to pressing issues. Conversations are candid, unclassified, off-the-record, and focused on driving change.

LEADERSHIP

H. R. McMaster

Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow

H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He was the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018.

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Amy Zegart

Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow

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.

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Raj Shah

Visiting Fellow

Raj Shah is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Shah is a technology entrepreneur and investor. Most recently he was the Managing Partner of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense. Raj led DIUx in its efforts to strengthen our Armed Forces through contractual and cultural bridges between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon. Previously he was senior director of strategy at Palo Alto Networks, which acquired Morta Security, where he was CEO and Co-Founder. He began his business career as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. Raj serves as an F-16 pilot in the Air National Guard and has completed multiple combat tours. He holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Michael Brown

Visiting Scholar

Michael Brown is a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and a member of the Board of Advisors at the Center for a New American Security and at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s National Security Innovation Base Program. He previously served four years (2018-2022) as the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit at the US Department of Defense. He also led the initiative for a new Defense Department-sponsored investment vehicle, National Security Innovation Capital to fund dual-use hardware technology companies. Prior to civil service, Michael was the CEO of Symantec Corporation (2014-2016), the global leader in cybersecurity and the world’s 10th largest software company. He received his BA degree in economics from Harvard University and his MBA degree from Stanford University.

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Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group

The Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group seeks to understand the drivers and dynamics of technological innovation in the 21st century, assess the opportunities and risks that breakthrough technologies are creating, and develop governance approaches that maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks for the nation and the world. Facts and objective analysis are the keys to the approach.

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Stanford Emerging Technology Review

Emerging technologies are transforming societies, economies, and geopolitics. This moment brings both promise and peril. In every era, technological advances are used in nefarious ways that inventors never imagined and slow-moving governments stymie innovations in ways that policymakers never intended. The stakes today are especially high. Great power competition between the US and China is the defining feature of the 21st century – and emerging technologies will determine who will win and what values will shape the international order.

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