Today, Abbas Milani takes readers back to remind them how Ayatollah Khomeini briefly feigned openness and progressive beliefs to manipulate his way to power during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, driving ordinary Iranians toward resistance ever since. Victor Davis Hanson produces a list of 10 characteristics that he says define Trump’s approach to war during his second administration. And Andrew Roberts speaks to a former top UK bureaucrat working to attract better people into a life of politics.
Iran
At The New York Times, Research Fellow Abbas Milani takes readers on a journey back to the months before the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He writes of how then Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini briefly pretended to embrace religious reform and friendliness to America only to pull a “bait and switch,” capitalizing on the unrest and resuming his harsh conservatism once the revolution deposed the shah. “The history of Iran over the past 47 years has been, partly, the tale of the people trying to regain the rights they lost in that bait and switch,” Milani writes of the waves of protest that have erupted in years since. Since the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and many other leaders by US and Israeli strikes, some of those who’ve taken their places harbor conservative views similar to theirs, but Milani says the unrest that preceded this war will continue once the bombs stop falling. “The machinery of the regime may survive today. But the counterrevolution of yesteryear is begetting the revolution of tomorrow.” Read more here. [Subscription required.]
At American Greatness, Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson traces how President Donald Trump’s approach to using military force has evolved since his first term, finding 10 underlying characteristics of its use during his second administration. Since his last term, Davis Hanson argues, Trump has “widened his doctrine of ‘preventative deterrence’” to involve force that is larger and possibly sustained over longer periods of time. Hanson says the raid to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, the bombing of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, and the current air war against Iran all show key aspects of his new use-of-force doctrine. They include Trump’s refusal to engage in activities that would be characterized as nation building; reluctance toward having US soldiers on the ground; emphasis on seizing or killing hostile leadership figures; and desire to engage in kinetic action even as negotiations with the target country may be ongoing. Read more here.
UK Politics
Munira Mirza, former British political advisor who served as director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 through 2022, speaks with Distinguished Visiting Fellow Andrew Roberts on the latest episode of Secrets of Statecraft. She is currently the director of Civic Future, a nonprofit that tries to attract talented people to stand for public office. In this interview, she reflects on her time at the highest levels of British government and delivers a bracing diagnosis of why political leadership has deteriorated across liberal democracies. She explores how short-termism, media incentives, and declining elite formation have driven talented people away from public life. The conversation ranges from Brexit and COVID to meritocracy, civic duty, and what it would take to rebuild a serious governing class. Watch or listen here.
Confronting and Competing with China
Hoover scholars joined leaders of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission at the Hoover Institution on January 29, 2026, to assess the commission’s 2025 report to Congress and to map what its findings mean for US policy. They concluded that today, China’s challenge to the United States is no longer confined to trade disputes or regional security flashpoints. It is systemic, spanning technology, certification standards, use of information, and military power, and it is accelerating faster than policymakers in Washington can keep up. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, created by Congress in 2000, is tasked with monitoring, investigating, and reporting to Congress on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Read more here.
The Economy
In his latest Grumpy Economist Weekly Rant, Senior Fellow John H. Cochrane explains stablecoins as an old financial idea implemented with new technology. A stablecoin functions like a money market fund: a share fixed at one dollar, backed by short-term Treasuries, designed to maintain stable value. What distinguishes it is payment functionality. Stablecoins can be transferred more easily than traditional money market shares and can execute transactions automatically, including conditional payments that would otherwise require escrow services. Regulation shapes this development. Cochrane notes that other safe alternatives—narrow banks, segregated accounts backed by Treasuries, and payment-enabled money market funds, are not permitted. Stablecoins developed in that environment. The GENIUS Act now authorizes regulated stablecoins but bars them from paying interest. Stablecoins underscore a recurring institutional dynamic: When regulation restricts one structure, markets construct an alternative. Watch his rant here.
Healthcare
The Hoover Institution’s Healthcare Policy Working Group proudly welcomes Dr. Brian Miller as a visiting fellow to support the ongoing development of healthcare policy solutions. Miller offers a unique skill set as a practicing physician and commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises Congress on the $800 billion per year Medicare program. He also serves as a trustee for the North Carolina State Health Plan. “I am excited to join the vibrant and creative policy community at Hoover,” Miller said. “And I look forward to working together on the development of effective and pragmatic healthcare policy." Read more here.
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