The Hoover Institution in Washington, the institution’s education and outreach arm located blocks from the White House, provides Hoover fellows with a platform in national policy discussions and serves as one of Washington’s preeminent information centers.
In 2018 Hoover in Washington hosted twenty Capitol Hill briefings and two Hill staff delegations to Stanford University, educating some 750 staffers along the way. In addition, fifty public events were held in our offices, and over two thousand guests attended. Here are the top ten events of 2018.
#1 Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity
As part of their book tour, Hoover senior fellows Condoleezza Rice and Amy Zegart stopped in at Hoover in Washington on May 21, 2018. NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, moderated a discussion on the fast-changing world and how political risk affects business.
#2 Jamal Khashoggi, Mohammad bin Salman, and the Future of US-Saudi Relations
In the wake of the October 2018 disappearance and killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, Hoover senior fellow Larry Diamond hosted a timely event providing an important dialogue around Mr. Khashoggi, the broader crackdown on dissent under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and US policy recommendations to address these new challenges. Khashoggi’s case has powerful implications for the freedom of the press and human rights more broadly.
#3 A Liberal Republic, If You Can Keep It?
Is the Madisonian project of republican self-government in disrepair? Is liberal democracy sustainable? Recent years have seen countless books and articles declaring the failure of classical liberalism—some by liberalism’s proponents, and some by its critics. How should we understand American liberalism, in the Founders’ time and in our own? In June, Hoover in Washington featured keynote remarks by Hoover senior fellow Harvey Mansfield on liberalism in theory and in practice.
#4 The Square and the Tower: A Book Discussion with Niall Ferguson
Hoover in Washington hosted Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson on March 14, 2018, to promote his latest book. In The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies, and the Struggle for Global Power, Ferguson describes the powerful networks that worked in the background of the popular history with which we are intimately familiar. From the Reformation to the American Revolution, Ferguson reframes our historical narrative by illuminating the role of networks. He argues that our current era is the Second Networked Age, an age in which the computer plays the same role as the printing press.
#5 Security by the Book Featuring Amy Chua
In her newest book, Amy Chua argues that more successful foreign policy is only possible if the US government acknowledges, and deals with, the realities of political tribalism. But Chua’s analysis isn’t limited to foreign political tribalism; she turns the magnifying glass inward to critique our domestic political culture. A successful America is one that overcomes the intense tribalism ripping apart our politics and our country by facing our inequities and differences no matter how difficult that process may be. Amy Chua was interviewed by Senior Fellow Jack Goldsmith on March 13, 2018.
#6 Chinese Influence and American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance
On November 29, 2018, a group of leading experts on China and American foreign policy, including Hoover senior fellow Larry Diamond and visiting fellow Elizabeth Economy, released their report documenting Chinese efforts to influence American society and calling for “constructive vigilance.”
#7 The Constitutional Congress: The First Branch and First Principles
On April 25, 2018, Senator Chuck Grassley visited the Hoover Institution in Washington for a conversation with research fellow Adam White as part of his Opening Arguments: Conversations on American Constitutionalism series. Senator Grassley offered some thoughts on the Senate’s proper powers and responsibilities, especially in light of the senator’s decades of public service in legislation, nominations, and oversight.
#8 Three Hoover Fellows on NAEP, a Nation at Risk, and the Future of Education Reform
In April 2018, the US Department of Education released the latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which told us how fourth- and eighth-grade students are faring nationally, in every state, and in most big cities in math and reading. Hoover Institution senior fellows Checker Finn, Eric Hanushek, and Paul Peterson looked at education reform’s progress since the 1980s and examined what the latest NAEP scores mean for America’s future economic growth and social vibrancy.
#9 MIT-Stanford Energy Game Changers Symposium
On September 18, 2018, former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz, alongside scientists and engineers from two leading American research universities and DOE national labs, explored the potential for energy “game changers”: inexpensive and abundant clean electricity production, affordable grid energy storage at scale, secure electrochemical fuel manufacturing, less carbon-intensive fossil energy through carbon capture, and more.
#10 Looking Back, Moving Forward: Senator Orrin Hatch and Four Decades of Foreign Policy
On November 27, 2018, Senator Orrin Hatch reflected on US foreign policy over his forty-two years of service by providing lessons learned and his thoughts on the future.
