In this section are recent articles by Hoover History Lab fellows, including essays and book reviews.
See also Books, Commentary, and Policy Briefs from the Hoover History Lab.
Ernest Bevin: Lessons for Today
By John Bew
April 23, 2025
The great historian Alan Bullock took over a thousand pages and three volumes to give his verdict on Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary from 1945 to 1951. So I will preface my short remarks today with an important caveat.
‘The Technological Republic’ Review: Power in a Silicon World
By John Bew
February 28, 2025
As dizzyingly complex technologies occupy the center of the global economic, political and military order, one entrepreneur thinks it’s time to talk philosophy.
Ferguson's Law: Debt Service, Military Spending, and the Fiscal Limits of Power
By Niall Ferguson
February 21, 2025
Are there financial determinants of great-power decline and fall? This paper proposes “Ferguson’s Law,” which states that any great power that spends more on debt servicing than on defense risks ceasing to be a great power.
The Silent Withdrawal: China’s Declining Female Workforce Poses a National Challenge
By Dian Zhong
February 11, 2025
In The Silent Withdrawal, Dian Zhong reveals a striking reversal in China’s once-celebrated gender equality, as women increasingly withdraw from the workforce despite higher education levels.
The neglect of Asia was the great failure of Yalta, writes Stephen Kotkin
By Stephen Kotkin
February 11, 2025
Black grouse and caviar helped Stalin get much of what he wanted, but his Red Army counted for more, says a notable historian of Russia
The Case for “Avalanche Decoupling” From China
By Eyck Freymann
January 29, 2025
Planning for Dramatic U.S. Action in a Crisis Will Make One Less Likely
A Fresh Look at the Russian Assets: A Proposal for International Resolution of Sanctioned Accounts
By Philip Zelikow
Thursday, January 9, 2025
As leaders debate how to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, they should at last clean up and escrow the management of the $300 billion in Russian assets that have been frozen for nearly three years. Since their seizure, the political and financial circumstances have completely changed.
Essay 30: Government By Democracy In America (Vol. 1 Pt. 2 Ch. 5, Subch. 15) of Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville
By Joseph Ledford
December 13, 2024
Foreign policy requires the combined use of patience, prudence, secrecy, and long-term strategic thinking. It entails grave risks and difficult trade-offs. Decision-makers, who should be free of the passions that grip the people, must make cold-blooded calculations in the national interest. Such is the view of De Tocqueville.
Americas First: Reorienting US Foreign Policy
By Joseph Ledford
October 8, 2024
The United States neglects Latin America and the Caribbean at its peril. From drug cartels to China and its anti-American allies, threats to the Americas directly affect US national security.
The Sacred Text and the Language of the Leader: “Cultured Language” and the Rhetorical Turn in North Korea
By Ria Roy
October 1, 2024
This article examines the emergence of munhwaŏ (“Cultured Language”) in relation to the primacy of the leader in the DPRK.... By tracing the “rhetorical turn” in North Korean linguistics in the 1960s, the author explores the development of munhwaŏ and its relation to the distinctive development of a charismatic oratory and a linguistic etiquette for the leader.
Xi Jinping’s Russian Lessons: What the Chinese Leader’s Father Taught Him About Dealing with Moscow
By Joseph Torigian via Foreign Affairs
June 24, 2024
On February 4, 2022, just before invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Beijing, where he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping signed a document that hailed a “no limits” partnership….
The Five Futures of Russia, And How America Can Prepare for Whatever Comes Next
By Stephen Kotkin via Foreign Affairs
April 18, 2024
Vladimir Putin happened to turn 71 last October 7, the day Hamas assaulted Israel. The Russian president took the rampage as a birthday present; it shifted the context around his aggression in Ukraine. Perhaps to show his appreciation, he had his Foreign Ministry invite high-ranking Hamas representatives to Moscow in late October, highlighting an alignment of interests. Several weeks later, Putin announced….
Jewish Roots in the Land of Israel/Palestine
By: Barry Strauss
February 6, 2024
The Jewish people have a very ancient history in the land known both as Palestine and the Land of Israel. The Jewish claim to indigeneity is based on a three-thousand-year-old continuous history and the status of the land since ancient times as the focus of Jewish life and yearning. While not denying Arab claims on the land, it must be recognized that in Israel, the Jews are not settler colonists.
Moneyball Military: An Affordable, Achievable, And Capable Alternative to Deter China
By Christian Brose
September 26, 2023
The US defense enterprise must remake itself to bolster deterrence with China. Instead of investing in small numbers of large, expensive, heavily manned military platforms, the United States must rapidly field large numbers of smaller, lower-cost, autonomous systems. This alternative force will not emerge from the Pentagon’s antiquated, central planning process.
