In today’s report:
- Andrew Roberts and Condoleezza Rice discuss the international security landscape and how leaders can best apply the lessons of history to current policy challenges.
- Russell Berman and Kiron Skinner suggest that the Trump administration should consider applying diplomatic pressure on France as it undermines US foreign policy in the Middle East.
- And Liz Truss speaks with Jon Hartley about her time as UK prime minister and the challenges she sees for Britain’s economy and governance in the years ahead.
Revitalizing History
Distinguished Visiting Fellow Andrew Roberts is joined by former US Secretary of State and current Director of the Hoover Institution Condoleezza Rice for a dive deep into today’s international hotspots—including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising tensions with China over Taiwan, and the complex relationships between Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Their discussion also covers how leaders draw lessons from history, what might tip the world into a new Cold War, and how nations might address these evolving challenges to security and prosperity. Director Rice also shares her thoughts on the rapid rise of artificial intelligence—and provides a reading recommendation on the topic, The Worlds I See by Fei-Fei Li, the founding codirector of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. Li and Rice are both involved in the Stanford Emerging Technology Review, a technology policy education initiative coproduced by Hoover’s Technology Policy Accelerator and the Stanford School of Engineering. Read more here.
The Middle East
“Repeating the same mantra of the two states without engaging with the political reality is a recipe for continued failure,” argue Senior Fellow Russell A. Berman and Research Fellow Kiron K. Skinner, in response to a recently concluded United Nations conference on a “two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Berman and Skinner suggest that building on the Abraham Accords model, where “political rapprochements are understood as gateways to economic cooperation and integration,” would be a better solution to the longstanding regional friction. The authors say that France, with its declared “intention to recognize Palestine at the UN General Assembly next month,” is subverting US foreign policy to the extent that the Trump administration should respond. Noting French reliance on US security assistance in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific, Berman and Skinner write, “If the French leadership chooses to subvert American interests and initiatives in the Middle East, it would be reasonable for the US to reduce support for France.” Read more here. [Subscription required]
Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
For a new episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century, Policy Fellow Jon Hartley and Liz Truss discuss the former UK Prime Minister’s upbringing and her early interest in economics and politics. Hartley asks Truss about her pro-growth policy vision for the United Kingdom, her premiership and the 2022 UK gilt crisis, and the state of free speech in the UK and the Anglosphere. Truss also shares her views on the Starmer Labour government, the role of the UK and its allies in the world amidst the rise of China, and the future direction of politics and the economy in the UK. Stressing the need for comprehensive governance reforms, Truss says, “We're not competitive enough, our energy isn't cheap enough, our taxes are too high, our welfare state doesn't work . . . unless there is some kind of miracle, it's hard to see how the show stays on the road.” Read more here.
Security and Defense
In a new essay for Defining Ideas, Visiting Fellow Vivek Lall calls for comprehensive reforms to the US defense establishment’s foreign military sales and international security assistance policies and procedures. Lall, the chief executive at aerospace and defense contractor General Atomics, recounts how his firm “offered Ukraine its MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft system for just one dollar” back in 2023. Unfortunately, Lall notes, “despite Ukraine’s urgent need of and the clear strategic value in deploying the MQ-9, General Atomics’ offer stalled out in the bureaucratic morass” of the Pentagon. “This must change,” says Lall. He maintains that in an era of increasingly tense geopolitical competition, “Washington needs to act decisively to overhaul the outdated systems strangling its defense industry. This isn’t just a matter of bureaucratic housekeeping. It’s imperative to supporting the national security of both the United States and its partners.” Read more here.
US Politics and Institutions
President “Trump’s executive orders banning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)-related racial and gender preferencing have ostensibly doomed the DEI industry,” writes Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson in a new essay published at his Blade of Perseus site. “But DEI was already on its last legs. Half of all Americans no longer approve of racial, ethnic, or gender preferences.” In the piece, Hanson shows why rigid DEI policies introduce many undesirable and impractical calculations into organizational management. Hanson also stresses the negative effect of such policies on a “multiracial and multiethnic society,” like the United States. Hanson concludes that even beyond the scope of Trump’s executive actions, DEI was “falling apart under the weight of its own paradoxes and hypocrisies. It is a perniciously divisive idea—unable to define who qualifies for preference or why, who is overrepresented or not, or when bias is acceptable or unjust. And it is past time that it goes away.” Read more here.
Senior Fellow Michael McConnell was awarded the 2025 Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty at the 2025 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit. The annual award honors contributions to religious liberty. In a video accompanying the award announcement, various distinguished legal scholars praise McConnell for his singular contributions to legal understanding of the US Constitution’s treatment of religion. McConnell, a former federal judge, is also lauded by his peers for his depth of impact across legal advocacy, academia, and judicial practice. Watch here.
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