Peter M. Robinson

Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow
Biography: 

Peter M. Robinson is the Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's video series program, Uncommon Knowledge™.

Robinson is also the author of three books: How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan Books, 2003); It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP, (Warner Books, 2000); and the best-selling business book Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA (Warner Books, 1994; still available in paperback).

In 1979, he graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he majored in English. He went on to study politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University, from which he graduated in 1982.

Robinson spent six years in the White House, serving from 1982 to 1983 as chief speechwriter to Vice President George Bush and from 1983 to 1988 as special assistant and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan. He wrote the historic Berlin Wall address in which President Reagan called on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"

After the White House, Robinson attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. (The journal he kept formed the basis for Snapshots from Hell.) He graduated with an MBA in 1990.

Robinson then spent a year in New York City with Fox Television, reporting to the owner of the company, Rupert Murdoch. He spent a second year in Washington, D.C., with the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he served as the director of the Office of Public Affairs, Policy Evaluation, and Research. Robinson joined the Hoover Institution in 1993.

The author of numerous essays and interviews, Robinson has published in the New York Times, Red Herring, and Forbes ASAP, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review Online. He is the editor of Can Congress Be Fixed?: Five Essays on Congressional Reform (Hoover Institution Press, 1995).

In 2005, Robinson was elected to serve as a Trustee of Dartmouth College.

Robinson lives in northern California with his wife, their children and their dog, Crusoe.

His research papers are available at the Hoover Institution Archives.

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In the News

The Free-Market Case for Green: Chapter 5 of 5

by Peter M. Robinsonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Friday, April 11, 2008

T. J. Rodgers discusses the promise and pitfalls of the most popular alternative-energy sources (other than solar)...

In the News

The Free-Market Case for Green: Chapter 4 of 5

by Peter M. Robinsonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Thursday, April 10, 2008

In the cause of dealing with global warming, Al Gore proposes replacing payroll taxes with pollution taxes on CO2; Barack Obama supports “cap-and-trade,” in which businesses can emit CO2 to a certain level, after which they will need credits to do so; and John McCain leans toward cap-and-trade, but with an emphasis on subsidies for nuclear energy...

In the News

The Free-Market Case for Green: Chapter 3 of 5

by Peter M. Robinsonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Does solar power “pay,” in the capitalist sense of the word? Almost...

In the News

The Free-Market Case for Green: Chapter 2 of 5

by Peter M. Robinsonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

T. J. Rodgers separates climate science from global-warming fiction: Do greenhouse gasses elevate temperatures?...

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The Free-Market Case for Green

by Peter M. Robinsonwith T.J. Rodgersvia Uncommon Knowledge
Monday, April 7, 2008

A dedicated, unabashed, free market capitalist, T. J. Rodgers takes a businessman’s and engineer’s view of global warming. How serious is it, and what should we make of the plans offered up by politicians such as Al Gore and Barack Obama to deal with it? If “cap and trade” or pollution taxes on CO2 are not the answer, what is? (39:52) video transcript

In the News

The Free-Market Case for Green: Chapter 1 of 5

by Peter M. Robinsonvia Uncommon Knowledge
Monday, April 7, 2008

Can a dedicated, unabashed, free-market capitalist also be a “green” environmentalist?...

George P. Shultz

Shultz on Nukes — Then & Now

by Peter M. Robinsonwith George P. Shultzvia Uncommon Knowledge
Monday, March 24, 2008

George Shultz, writing with Henry Kissinger and others in the Wall Street Journal late last year, asserted that “nuclear weapons were essential to maintaining international security during the Cold War. …But reliance on nuclear weapons for [the purpose of deterrence] is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective,…The world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era.” What made nuclear weapons acceptable then, and so unacceptable today? In answering these questions Shultz addresses the difficult challenges the United States faces as it seeks to curb the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, and the threat represented by non-nation state actors: the nightmare scenario of a nuclear suitcase bomb detonating in a major American city. (32:06) Video transcript

In the News

Uncommon Knowledge: Shultz on Nukes — Then & Now: Chapter 1 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with George P. Shultzvia National Review Online
Monday, March 24, 2008

Former secretary of State George Shultz has joined several other former U.S. officials — Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn — in directing the Nuclear Security Project, which is aimed at “ending nuclear weapons as a threat to the world.”...

In the News

The Decline and Fall of Europe: Chapter 5 of 5

by Peter M. Robinsonvia National Review Online
Friday, March 14, 2008

Prof. Thornton says the U.S. needs to show Europe some tough love, with particular regard to military matters...

In the News

Why Europe Needs to Pony Up

by Peter M. Robinsonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Friday, March 14, 2008

If Europeans are indulging in a vacation from reality, as Dr. Bruce Thornton contends, then what can the United States do to snap them out of it?

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