Articles
Securing the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal—the transoceanic waterway through which five percent of global commerce flows—is critical for U.S. national security.
September 8, 2026
Recorded on March 16, 2017
Although many people have heard of Carly Fiorina, former presidential candidate and first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, few have had the chance to sit down and speak with her. In this special live taping of Uncommon Knowledge, at the National Review Institute’s Idea Summit, with guest host Michael Franc, director of Hoover’s Washington, DC, Programs, Fiorina discusses the 2016 presidential election, her personal path to conservatism, and her beliefs about the future for US and global politics. She opens up about the often-brutal criticisms she received during the election, her choice to become conservative, the loss of her stepdaughter to drug addiction, and the ways in which she believes conservatives are fighting to help people help themselves by giving them the tools and resources necessary to change their own path. Fiorina goes on to analyze the current state of the union, the disenfranchised Americans she’s met, and the solutions she believes in for the future of the United States.
Special Guest Host: Michael Franc is the Hoover Institution’s director of DC programs, where he oversees research and outreach initiatives to promote ideas and scholarship in our nation’s capital. He holds a dual appointment as a research fellow. Mike Franc is a longtime veteran of Washington, DC, policy making. Before joining Hoover, Franc served as policy director and counsel for House majority leader Kevin McCarthy. He also served as the vice president of government relations for the Heritage Foundation from 1997 to 2013. During that time, he managed all the think tank’s outreach with Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch. He also completed a tour of duty as communications director for former House majority leader Dick Armey (R-TX) and worked for the US Department of Education and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has been quoted widely in the print and broadcast media and was a regular contributor to the National Review Online and other publications. Franc has a BA from Yale University and a JD from Georgetown University.

Carly Fiorina
Articles
The Panama Canal—the transoceanic waterway through which five percent of global commerce flows—is critical for U.S. national security.
September 8, 2026
Articles
The proliferation of land-based missiles, cheap drones, and integrated anti-access/area-denial networks has overturned centuries of assumptions about naval dominance, allowing regional powers—and their proxies—to hold critical maritime trade at risk. Traditional sea powers must adapt on two fronts: preventing chokepoint closures through deterrence by denial and mitigating them through resilience by design.
September 8, 2026
Articles
There is one sure-fire way to prevent adversaries and enemies from weaponizing chokepoints against the United States: Maintain an economy that does not require goods and commodities to pass through them.
September 8, 2026