Our Commentary section below includes recent short-form writings by Hoover History Lab authors published either by us or in the media.
See also Books, Articles, and Policy Briefs from the Hoover History Lab.
Tariffs Won’t Reindustrialize America. Here’s What Will
By Dan Wang and Ben Reinhardt via Bloomberg
May 14, 2025
To revive manufacturing the US needs to borrow from China’s playbook.
La Guerre de Trente Ans, 1618-1648
Featuring Lucian Staiano-Daniels via Taylor & Francis
January 7, 2025
It took ten years to assemble the conferences that generated the Peace of Westphalia. During these repeated negotiations, some of the delegates put on an amateur ballet on the subject of peace, literally enacting peace with their bodies (La Guerre de Trente Ans, 517). This ballet exemplifies not only the attitudes and practices of the early to mid-seventeenth century, but also Claire Gantet’s attention to precise detail. Belligerents do not sleepwalk into war in this book, nor do they slump into peace from laxity of effort: instead, Gantet depicts both peace and war, like dance, as the aggregate result of deliberate human actions. Everyone in this book had an active mind. The problem is they all wanted different things.
The Immigration Puzzle | STANFORD magazine
By Cody Nager via Stanford Magazine
January 6, 2025
Citizenship is a club, and it’s up to the people with a seat at the table to decide together who else to let in. Or so says Stanford classicist and democracy scholar Josiah Ober in his 2023 book with Brook Manville, The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives. In the United States, cue 300 million chairs.
Remembering President Carter
By Philip Zelikow via LinkedIn
December 30, 2024
I began working with former President Carter while I directed a center on the presidency at the University of Virginia, as that center revived its work on oral history, in which Carter had played a constructive part. But he really stepped up after the terrible controversy over the counting of ballots in Florida after the 2000 presidential election.
Commentary | Norman Joshua, The Ghosts of Past Autocrats in Prabowo’s Indonesia?
Interview with Joseph Ledford via Annual 90-Day Study by Constituting America
December 13, 2024
On October 20, 2024, Indonesia inaugurated its new president and vice-president, Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Many experts have raised concerns among experts who view it as a signal towards further democratic erosion in a country already marked by a flawed democracy. Numerous analyses have examined how the previous administration under President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) have weakened Indonesia’s democratic institutions while entrenching dynastic politics. The election of Prabowo—a retired Army special forces commander with a tainted human rights record who is also the former son-in-law of long-time authoritarian leader Suharto)—alongside with Gibran, Jokowi’s eldest son, have fueled fears that Prabowo’s presidency could mark the end of Indonesia’s post-authoritarian reform era (Reformasi) and signal a return to autocratic governance. Others, however, take a more optimistic view, suggesting that Indonesia’s fragmented political landscape, dispersed power structures, and short political memory may curb Prabowo’s ability to consolidate autocratic control, thus contributing to the nation’s democratic resilience.
Essay 30: Government By Democracy In America (Vol. 1 Pt. 2 Ch. 5, Subch. 15) of Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville
Interview with Joseph Ledford via Annual 90-Day Study by Constituting America
December 13, 2024
Governing the external affairs of a state involves a particular set of skills. 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. In contrast to the “good sense” of democracy guiding domestic affairs, De Tocqueville observes that foreign affairs demand these aristocratic attributes. Certain qualities of democracy stop at the water’s edge.
America's Backyard
By Joseph Ledford via PolicyEd
December 9, 2024
To effectively challenge nations like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, the United States must return to the principles of the Monroe Doctrine and prioritize its own backyard first.
America Must Put The “Americas First”
By Joseph Ledford via Defining Ideas
December 9, 2024
Our partners in Latin America and the Caribbean have been neglected for too long.
Trump is not in the White House yet but it feels like he is already in charge
By Bhagyashree Garekar via the Straits Time
December 4, 2024
This weekend will find Donald Trump beaming into cameras as he stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron to celebrate the reopening of the historical Notre-Dame Cathedral five years after it was ravaged by a fire.
The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917
By Philip Zelikow
December 4, 2024
I was talking to my Hoover colleague and noted diplomatic historian Philip Zelikow, and he mentioned this recent book of his; I asked him for a quick summary of his conclusions, and he was kind enough to put one together for me.
Debating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
By Philip Zelikow via Linkedin
December 4, 2024
In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on December 2, Ronald Kessler, a former reporter who has written books about the CIA and the FBI, argued that “if President-elect Donald Trump is looking for a quick and widely supportd way to reduce the federal budget, he should look no further than abolishing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).” Hoover’s Botha-Chan Senior Fellow Philip Zelikow reminds us that this is a case where it really helps to know the history of the issue. He was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission. He later published a detailed history of the controversial intelligence reforms in the CIA’s in-house journal.
Vexed by Venezuela: the Maduro Problem
By Joseph Ledford via Defining Ideas
November 13, 2024
Incoming president Trump will face hard choices when confronting the election crisis.
Trump and the Future of American Power
Interview with Stephen Kotkin via Foreign Affairs
November 7, 2024
Foreign Affairs Executive Editor Justin Vogt spoke with Kotkin on Wednesday, November 6, in the wake of Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the U.S. presidential election.
Washington’s New World War I Memorial Is defiantly Traditional
By Michael R. Auslin via the Wall Street Journal
September 12, 2024
The capital’s monuments to the Vietnam War and World War II were criticized as depressing and ungainly, but a 58-foot-long sculpture by artist Sabin Howard tells a classic story of heroism.
“My Ukrainian Village Is No More”
By Paul R. Gregory
September 11, 2024
Survivors confirm that the Russian offensive is following a familiar path of destruction and massacre.
Expertise and hard work is being thrown away because of Labour's decision to kick out hereditary peers from the Lords
By Andrew Roberts, via the Daily Mail
September 9, 2024
As the Government introduces its bill to expel the 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords, we should be appalled at the way an efficient and elegant part of the British Constitution is being sacrificed on the altar of Labour hypocrisy, party advantage and class prejudice….
No, Churchill was not the Villain
Andrew Roberts via the Washington Free Beacon
September 6, 2024
The historian Darryl Cooper has argued in an interview on Tucker Carlson's show that Winston Churchill "was the chief villain of World War II," which would be both interesting and indeed shocking were his thesis not based on such staggering ignorance and disregard for historical fact that it is safe to disregard completely.
The Arms of August
By Barry Strauss
August 28, 2024
There are moments in history when not just armies but opposing political philosophies meet on the battlefield. The last week of August, 480 BC, was one of those rare moments. It was then, at two battle sites about 40 miles apart, that three countries and three societal visions clashed.
Washington Treasures I: The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
By Michael R. Auslin via the Patowmack Packet
August 25, 2024
The political pyrotechnics in Washington this summer have been so blinding as to blot out everything else happening in the National Capital.
How Likely Is a Gaza Cease-Fire and a Saudi Mega Deal?
Interview with Bill Whalen, Cole Bunzel, via Matters of Policy & Politics
August 16, 2024
The world is bracing for further violence in the Middle East, fearing the conflict will escalate into a regional war.
Presidential Agonistes, Half a Century Apart
By Michael R Auslin, via RealClear Politics
August 6, 2024
A broiling summer in the national capital, a president in crisis, and the final blows being delivered by the leaders of his own party. What drove Joe Biden from the presidential race is an eerie parallel to what Richard Nixon faced exactly 50 years ago. Both men believed they could survive fatal wounds, yet instead of having the voters decide their fates, both were ultimately done in by their own parties.
Is AI About To Run Out of Data? The History Of Oil Says No
By Niall Ferguson, John-Clark Levin via Time
August 2, 2024
Is the AI bubble about to burst? Every day that the stock prices of semiconductor champion Nvidia and the so-called “Fab Five” tech giants (Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta) fail to regain their mid-year peaks, more people ask that question.
The Taliban’s Political Theory: ‘Abd al-Hakim al-Haqqani’s Vision for the Islamic Emirate
By Cole Bunzel via the Hudson Institute
July 29, 2024
Since the Taliban’s August 2021 return to power amid the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, questions have swirled around the kind of state that the group is building in the second iteration of its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
War Is Interested in You
By Cole Bunzel via Hoover Digest
July 10, 2024
Why American leaders are repeatedly drawn back into the Mideast, the crucible of great-power designs and aspiring hegemons.
John Dunlop: An Appreciation
By Norman M. Naimark, Paul R. Gregory, Stephen Kotkin
July 10, 2024
The collection of the late Hoover senior fellow and Russia expert John B. Dunlop is a rich review of the movements and struggles that gave birth to the Putin era. It is also a tribute to an inimitable scholar and colleague.
How The Personalities of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman Help Us Understand The American Right
Interview with Jennifer Burns, via Forbes
July 10, 2024
Covert, Coercive, Corrupting
By Jonathan Movroydis, interview with Glenn Tiffert
July 10, 2024
As Beijing attempts to extend its power throughout the world, scholars in the West can stand up to Beijing. Hoover fellow Glenn Tiffert, a historian of modern China, explains how.
Israel and Ukraine Deserve to Win
By Niall Ferguson
July 10, 2024
Both democracies need our continued help. This is the wrong moment for Americans to become self-absorbed.
A Population Implosion
By Niall Ferguson
July 10, 2024
Humans once dreamed of populating the universe. Instead, our population is set to begin shrinking right here on Earth.
August 1945: Fallout
By Michael R. Auslin
July 10, 2024
The moral qualms dramatized in the movie Oppenheimer were central to the discussions about whether to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A new book illuminates what informed that decision, and what followed it.
The Civic Bargan: How Democracy Survives
By Josiah Ober via PolicyEd
July 2, 2024
The United States faces no shortage of challenges from political polarization to institutional distrust, to economic uncertainty. But through devoted efforts toward civic engagement, civic education, and civic bargaining, American citizens can ensure American democracy survives and thrives.
‘Endgame 1944’ Review: A Savage Conflict in the East
By Bertrand M. Patenaude
June 2, 2024
A ferocious military campaign put the Red Army within striking distance of Berlin and Stalin in a position to dictate postwar terms.
China is Attractive to Countries That Are Tired of Receiving Lessons from the West
Interview with Glenn Tiffert via Publico
April 28, 2024
(Original interview is in Portuguese). Hoover Institution fellow Glenn Tiffert talks about the Foreign Policy strategy of the People’s Republic of China in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Europe, and other part of the globe, as well as the impact of the Chinese economic situation on politics internally and under the leadership of Xi Jinping.
Should We Expect A Chinese Invasion Of Taiwan In The Near Future
Interview with Glenn Tiffert via the Lars Larson Show
March 23, 2024
Hoover Institution fellow Glenn Tiffert gives his opinion concerning the possibility that China will invade Taiwan.
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