Today, Stephen Haber writes how deep currents within the United States’ political culture help to explain the recent turn toward trade protectionism and immigration restrictions; a new video explains “Ferguson’s law” and what it reveals about America’s financial and global position today; and Rishi Sunak shows how Britain has an opportunity to lead in biotechnology, if it can embrace regulatory reforms and align incentives to promote domestic innovations.
Freedom Frequency
“America First” and “Trumpism” are the political expressions of the moment, but the United States’ turn toward tariffs and curtailed immigration is unlikely to be a fleeting phenomenon, argues Senior Fellow Stephen Haber at Freedom Frequency. That’s because the roots of the American experiment lie in three centuries of pursuit of an ideal: a society of equals. Haber shows that when challenged by slavery, new technology, and the pressures of immigration, the United States has often resorted to the type of restrictions today occupying the headlines. The consistent philosophical goal of the nation’s political culture, Haber concludes, has been to manifest the belief that America is made up of “self-reliant equals with the power to shape their own destinies.” Read more here.
Economic History and Policy
For the first time since 1934, US interest payments on the national debt now exceed annual defense spending. A new episode of UnArchived—drawing on research from Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson—explains how this reversal carries profound implications for American power. History suggests that when great powers devote more resources to servicing debt than to sustaining military capability, geopolitical decline becomes difficult to avoid. From Habsburg Spain and revolutionary France to the Ottoman Empire and post–World War I Britain, rising debt burdens constrained defense, weakened deterrence, and accelerated geopolitical retreat. Today, the United States faces a similar risk as entitlement-driven debt growth crowds out defense spending. This video shows how without meaningful fiscal reform, including changes to entitlement programs and debt management, America may find its global leadership increasingly constrained by the cost of past obligations rather than the present demands of security. Watch here.
Emerging Technology Policy
Writing in the opinion section of The Times (UK), Distinguished Visiting Fellow Rishi Sunak argues that “biotechnology is one of the most revolutionary, yet underappreciated, technologies of our time.” The former British prime minister notes that in the near future, biotech “promises personalized cancer vaccines, cures for rare childhood diseases, and the ability to design and print entirely new DNA to kill bacteria.” But Sunak says British regulations risk stifling future biotech innovations in that nation, while China and the United States push ahead with commercializing new biotechnologies. “It would be a tragedy if Britain—the country where the structure of DNA was discovered, where a mammal was first cloned, and which birthed the Nobel prizewinning AlphaFold—were to miss out on this moment,” Sunak says. He concludes with a call for Britons to embrace a lighter regulatory approach to biotech, and to consider allowing British companies to use national health data to speed up their pace of innovation. Read more here.
Immigration Policy
The arrival of highly skilled foreign workers into the United States generates a range of positive gains for trade, entrepreneurship, and innovation—benefits that other nations will snap up an increasing share of if the United States continues to tighten its immigration rules. Those were the findings indicated by a trio of papers presented at Hoover’s 2026 Immigration Policy and the Economics of Innovation conference. Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice told attendees that it’s imperative the US remain the leading destination in the world for bright students to study and create things. “We have always been able to welcome the best students from around the world to the USA, because they were free here, free to think outside of the box,” she said. “Don’t we want to be the place where the best and brightest want to come? Yes, we want to be that place, and perhaps business leaders understand that the most.” She said the conference was yet another way academics and industry leaders could find “sensible approaches to solve the immigration dilemma.” Read more here.
Revitalizing History
Last Wednesday, the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions held “The Declaration of Independence: History, Meaning, and Modern Impact” with Research Fellows Michael Auslin and Jonathan Gienapp, and CEO of Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Jane Kamensky. The panel examined the Declaration’s cultural and physical history, its philosophical foundations and contested meanings, and its evolving role in shaping debates about rights, equality, and self-government. Participants gained insight into how the document continues to inform national identity, animate civic discourse, and guide the ongoing effort to fulfill the promise of America’s democratic ideals. The full video of the panel discussion, as well as an audio recording, are available now. Watch or listen here.
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