Today, H.R. McMaster examines the foreign influence and interference opportunities presented to America’s adversaries seeking to exploit the assassination of Charlie Kirk. A new survey coauthored by Hoover fellows Amit Seru and David Larcker finds CEOs are increasingly using informal networks of advisors and even paid professional coaches to help formulate strategy and make decisions. And Oliver Melton discusses the importance of sifting through the noise to find the signal when evaluating the health of China’s economy on the latest episode of China Considered with Elizabeth Economy.
National Security
Over on his Substack, Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster explores Charlie Kirk’s assassination through a national security lens, citing how America’s adversaries can use the incident to engage in political interference. Almost immediately, McMaster writes, “Chinese-linked social media accounts spread conspiracy theories about the shooting, predicting that the US is ‘slipping into civil war’.” McMaster points out he had his own encounter with Wang Huning, a close advisor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has advanced this idea of using America’s internal tensions to China’s advantage for decades. McMaster urges the American public not to succumb to polarization and acrimony. “We have an opportunity to honor Charlie Kirk’s memory and prove Chinese Communist Party leaders wrong by engaging one another in respectful discussions about how we can strengthen our nation,” he writes. Read more here.
The Economy
Half of all CEOs employ a professional coach to help them hone their leadership skills, and more than 80 percent maintain a “kitchen cabinet” of informal advisors to help them make decisions. This is according to a new survey undertaken by scholars from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Hoover Institution’s Governance of Organizations Working Group, and The Miles Group. More than 90 percent of CEOs surveyed indicated they use either a professional coach or a network of informal advisors, demonstrating that the role of a modern CEO is changing and corporate leaders are expected to seek external insights when making decisions, according to report coauthor and Hoover Senior Fellow Amit Seru. “The mainstream adoption of coaching reflects how the role of CEO has evolved from being the ultimate authority in an organization to a leader who leverages external insights to drive better outcomes,” said Seru. Read more here.
Confronting and Competing with China
On the latest episode of China Considered, Senior Fellow Elizabeth Economy speaks with Oliver Melton, a former diplomat in Beijing who now works as a China economy analyst for Rhodium Group. He tells Economy about how important it is as an evaluator of China’s economy to get out of Beijing, go into the industrial areas, and sniff out relevant data to illustrate what the numbers really are. His work involves scrutinizing the official communications of the Chinese Communist Party and other relevant institutions. Melton said this work is complimented by on-the-ground interviews with subject matter experts, and “Kremlinology,” or deciphering the communications of the state. Watch or listen to their conversation here.
US Defense
In a new piece published on Andreesen Horowitz’s American Dynamism blog, Hoover Fellow Eyck Freymann and defense policy analyst Harry Halem argue that America’s defense procurement process needs a revamp. Echoing the findings in their new book The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices, they argue that modern war rewards sensing, counter-sensing, and rapid resupply, not wildly expensive bespoke weapons platforms. They say that today, America’s weakness is capacity and a dysfunctional weapons procurement system that can’t translate ideas into fielded capability fast enough. They urge new reforms, such as buying commercially available platforms by default, funding prototype development, lowering barriers for new defense market entrants, and rewarding Pentagon officials for speed and availability. Read more here.
Reforming K–12 Education
Today, Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek addressed the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He reiterated his comments on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress data, which shows math and reading scores had already been falling for most students for nearly 10 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply doing more of what was implemented prior to school closures will not reverse these trends, he warned. He urged lawmakers to support education reforms suggested by recent work at Hoover such as the initial report of the Education Futures Council. These reforms would reinforce outcome-based school design based on performance, with successful schools earning “operational latitude” to develop new methods, while struggling schools could receive more guided help to achieve better results. Read or watch his testimony here.
Health Care
On Substack, Policy Fellows Tom Church and Daniel Heil point out that even with the Medicaid spending changes contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill being characterized as a “cut” to Medicaid spending, overall spending on the program will continue to rise between now and 2034. While the new measures reduce Medicaid spending by $910 billion over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, overall outlays on Medicaid will continue to rise. Church and Heil calculate that nominal Medicaid spending will grow by $740 billion over the next ten years. Adjusted for inflation, they say real Medicaid spending will essentially be flat, growing less than $20 billion in that same period. Read more here.
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