A book party to signal the debut of Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11, by the Honorable Richard A. Posner, was held June 7 in Washington, D.C.

In this edition, members of the Hoover Institution’s Jean Perkins Task Force on National Security and Law deftly explore the complex considerations—technological, legal, political, and strategic—that should inform government’s ability to conduct electronic surveillance and keep secrets while protecting citizens’ rights and ensuring democratic accountability.

John Batchelor, host of the nationally syndicated John Batchelor Radio Show, which is broadcast by WABC radio in New York, took his program on the road to the Hoover Institution to tape an hour-long program in front of a live studio audience. A number of Hoover fellows, addressing a wide variety of topics, were featured on recent Batchelor Radio Show programs.

In this book, Blitz clarifies and defends contemporary American conservatism. He explains the beliefs, practices, and institutions that play a crucial role in forming and sustaining liberty in America.

The Hoover Institution hosted its annual Board of Overseers’ summer meeting during July 9–11, 2013.

The program began on Tuesday evening with before-dinner remarks by Paul D. Clement, a partner at Bancroft PLLC. Clement served as the forty-third solicitor general of the United States from June 2005 until June 2008. He has argued more than sixty-five cases before the US Supreme Court. During Clement’s speech, titled “Federalism in the Roberts Court,” he talked about the revitalization of federalism in the Rehnquist court “imposing some limits on the federal government’s power vis-a-vis the states.”

David Brooks, New York Times columnist and author, was the featured speaker at the opening dinner, Sunday, April 30, of the 2006 Hoover Spring Retreat.

The Hoover Institution hosted its annual Spring Retreat beginning on Sunday, April 21, 2013, with before-dinner remarks by Kevin Warsh, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His speech, titled “The Economy over the Horizon: Unknown Knowns,” emphasized the importance of the state of the economy, which currently has a 2 percent growth rate, and understanding the concept of “unknown knowns,” a reference to former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.