Hoover History Lab | Articles

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.

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. 

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.