Today, Condoleezza Rice speaks with President George W. Bush about leading the nation through the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; H.R. McMaster calls on Americans to honor the victims of the attacks by transcending partisan vitriol; and Admiral James Ellis explains how new technologies have overturned centuries of assumptions about naval dominance—and how traditional sea powers like the United States must respond.
Remembering 9/11
Last night at an event hosted by the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice joined President George W. Bush onstage to discuss their experiences of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Rice, at that time serving as the national security advisor, was in Washington, DC, while Bush was visiting a school in Florida. Rice and Bush reflect on the many uncertainties they experienced that morning, with Rice emphasizing the difficulty and magnitude of decisions that had to be made quickly by President Bush. Among these were how to respond to commercial airplanes that remained in the sky following the order to close American airspace and the decision taken to shoot down any unresponsive aircraft ahead of their use to strike additional ground targets. Rice also asks Bush about the day after the attacks, and both leaders reflect on the decision by NATO allies to invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter for the first—and, to date, only—time in its history, to rally to the defense of the United States. Watch here.
“Tomorrow we commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Al Qaeda mass atrocity committed against our nation which resulted in the deaths of nearly three thousand innocents,” writes Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster at his Substack. “We should remember and mourn the loss of those who died at the hands of modern-day barbarians, express support for the loved ones they left behind, celebrate the heroism of the first responders, and express gratitude for those servicemen and women who took the fight to jihadist terrorist organizations abroad and thereby prevented more attacks and human suffering.” McMaster concludes by calling all Americans to a civic mission: “The best way of honoring those taken from us on September 11, 2001, may be for each of us to do our part to pull ourselves together and transcend the vitriol that is the dominant feature of partisan political discourse.” Read more here.
Security and Defense
“Naval forces can no longer assume uncontested access to the world’s chokepoints,” Distinguished Visiting Fellow James O. Ellis Jr. writes for Strategika. “That is the strategic fact of our era, and it demands answers,” the career naval officer argues. Traditional sea powers must adapt on two fronts, Ellis says: preventing chokepoint closures through deterrence by denial and mitigating them through resilience by design. The first task means “convincing any adversary that an attempt to close a chokepoint will fail—or cost far more than it gains.” Ellis lays out six priorities for achieving such deterrence. The second layer rests on an acknowledgment that “deterrence can fail, and honest strategy plans for it.” Ellis says strategic reserves of energy, as well as plans to bypass chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, offer ways to stay in the fight when deterrence breaks down. Read more here.
Freedom Frequency
As Hoover Fellow Jacquelyn Schneider recounts at Freedom Frequency, David Bushnell, among the lesser-known figures of the Revolutionary War, was an educated innovator who set out to help the struggling Continental Army hold its own against the mighty British military. Bushnell is credited with inventing the first submarine—which made a gallant try at sinking a British warship—and coming up with a fleet of explosive barrels that were a primitive form of torpedo. Schneider writes that Bushnell’s interest in technological advances set a model for the US military, which to this day relies on initiative and innovation to keep ahead of adversaries. Bushnell’s inventions showed how new weapons might shift the balance of power and foster an army’s fighting spirit, even when the odds are against them, Schneider says. Read more here.
Confronting and Competing with China
Under Xi Jinping’s autocratic leadership, China has projected an image of economic strength and increasing self-sufficiency. But does this image correspond to economic reality?
The Big Idea: In a new episode of China Considered, Senior Fellow Elizabeth Economy sits down with Logan Wright, partner at Rhodium Group and author of the forthcoming book Broken China: How the Economic Miracle Shattered and What It Means for the World (Polity, 2026), to reconcile the competing narratives about China’s economy: inexorable rise, “K-shaped” growth, or “peak China.” Wright argues that the credit-based financial system that once fueled China’s growth now constrains it. Watch or listen here.
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