2024 in the Media
This year, as Ukraine suffered the ongoing onslaught by Russia, Hoover fellows participated in numerous media appearances, discussions, and conferences. In an October 2023 interview with the New Yorker’s David Remnick, Senior Fellow Stephen Kotkin argued that if the United States pushes Ukraine to accept a settlement, it must also press for regime change in Russia.
October also saw Hamas terrorists mount a surprise attack on Israel. Hoover scholars provided comprehensive analysis in the aftermath. Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow Peter Berkowitz, with his background as a senior State Department official, provided readers with insights on the attack’s impacts on Israeli society and politics, and its broader implications for the greater Middle East. Condoleezza Rice gave an exclusive interview on Fox News’s Hannity, remarking that “the scale of this brutality, this barbarity, is something that we really haven’t seen in a very long time.”
Peter Berkowitz lectures on the geopolitics of the Middle East at the Fall 2023 Retreat, just a few days after the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Photo: Eric Draper, 2023
Foreign Affairs Prominently Features Hoover Fellows
Photo: courtesy Foreign Affairs
Essays from three leading Hoover fellows made the cover of the May/June 2024 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, published six times per year by the Council on Foreign Relations. It features essays by Hargrove Senior Fellow Elizabeth Economy and Senior Fellow Stephen Kotkin, as well as a piece coauthored by Distinguished Visiting Fellow Matt Pottinger and former US representative Mike Gallagher.
Later in the year, in the September/October 2024 issue, Director Condoleezza Rice warns of what she calls the “new Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”—populism, nativism, isolationism, and protectionism—arguing that to successfully advocate for an internationalist foreign policy, an American president must vividly depict the catastrophic consequences of US withdrawal from global leadership.
Fellowship’s Impact in the Media in 2023–24
In an introduction to the Stanford Emerging Technology Review, media toured laboratories where Stanford engineering researchers described developments in breakthrough technologies, including the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine Lab. Here, Science Fellow Allison Okamura demonstrates a robotic teleoperator interface.
Photo: Rod Searcey, 2023
Hoover Institution fellows made a tremendous impact this year across a diverse media landscape. On television, 44 fellows participated in more than 496 interviews; 12 fellows appeared on Sunday shows for the major television networks. Fellows penned more than 784 opinion pieces that appeared in 148 different outlets. In audio, 81 fellows completed 411 podcast and radio interviews. Four Hoover media roundtables in Washington attracted 62 journalists, and 11 journalists participated in Hoover’s media fellowship program on the Stanford University campus.
Congressional Testimonies & Briefings by Hoover Fellows
Margaret (Macke) Raymond testifies before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, on March 6, 2024.
PHOTO: SERGEI SHEF, 2024
September 27, 2023: Distinguished Research Fellow Glenn Tiffert spoke to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding China’s influence and political interference activities within the United States.
November 29, 2023: Senior Fellow Lee Ohanian testified before the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, speaking about California’s experience building high-speed rail.
January 17, 2024: Distinguished Visiting Fellow Matt Pottinger spoke to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee about the various ways US private capital helps facilitate expansion and improvements of China’s military.
March 6, 2024: Distinguished Research Fellow Margaret (Macke) Raymond testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, bringing forth her decades-long work researching the educational outcomes of charter schools.
April 16, 2024: Visiting Fellow Charles Blahous spoke to the US House Ways and Means Committee, recommending updates to the windfall elimination provision and government pension offset used to calculate social security payments.
Policy Outreach
Congressional Fellowship Program
Hoover experts briefed US congressional staff members on topics of national interest as part of the Congressional Fellowship Program, organized by Hoover to equip congressional staffers with the widest and most current perspectives as they contend with legislative challenges at home and abroad.
On April 3, twenty-six staffers heard topic-specific briefings from a dozen Hoover fellows, including Distinguished Fellow General Jim Mattis, Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow John H. Cochrane, Senior Fellow Brandice Canes-Wrone, Hoover Fellow Jacquelyn Schneider, and Distinguished Research Fellow Margaret (Macke) Raymond.
On May 30, sixteen Senate and House technology-focused staff came to campus for a day of lab visits and keynote discussions by Stanford Emerging Technology Review cochairs Director Condoleezza Rice, Senior Fellow Amy Zegart, and Jennifer Widom.
John Cochrane speaks to US Senate and House staffers as part of the Congressional Fellowship Program on April 3, 2024.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
State and Local Leadership Forum
Visiting Fellow Sarah Anzia speaks to attendees of the State and Local Leadership Forum about public pension sustainability on May 21, 2024.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
More than a dozen chiefs of staff and senior advisors to US governors gathered at Hoover on May 20–21 for the annual State and Local Leadership Forum. They met with a host of senior fellows, who spoke about the state of US macroeconomics, the threat of global war, levels of trust in America’s governing institutions, and how China conducts influence operations by exploiting even the most well-intentioned local leaders.
The annual forum is meant to help senior advisors to US governors anticipate and navigate emerging trends and challenges. This year’s gathering included officials from states including California, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Utah, and Vermont.
Educational Initiatives
Stanford Civics Initiative
Brandice Canes-Wrone, Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow
PHOTO: PATRICK BEAUDOUIN, 2023
The objective of the Stanford Civics Initiative, operated by Stanford’s Department of Political Science, is to provide courses relevant to the ideas and practices of democratic citizenship. The program operates under the belief that US universities have a responsibility to offer students an education that will promote their flourishing as human beings, their judgment as moral agents, and their participation in society as democratic citizens. Several of the initiative’s course offerings feature those taught by Hoover fellows:
- Global Futures: History, Statecraft, Systems (Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Kotkin)
- The Presidency (Brandice Canes-Wrone)
- Varieties of Conservatism in America (Peter Berkowitz)
- Creation of the Constitution (Michael McConnell)
- Hoover Institution National Security Affairs Mentorship Program (Amy Zegart and National Security Affairs Fellows)
- Democracy Ancient and Modern: From Politics to Political Theory, and the Origins of Political Thought (Josiah Ober)
Hoover Indigenous Student Seminar
On August 5–9, Hoover convened Indigenous undergraduates and recent graduates from across the United States and Canada to explore federal policy toward Indigenous peoples, tribal governance, and Indigenous entrepreneurship. During the week, students learned about the evolution of property rights and trade networks before European contact; the philosophical underpinnings of Indigenous notions of individualism and governance; the effects of persistent colonial policies on Indigenous people and communities; and the innovations in Indian Country that are restoring self-determination and spurring economic growth.
Senior Fellow Dominic Parker (far left) and University of Victoria economics professor Donn Feir (center left) listen to participants in the Hoover Institution Indigenous Student Seminar on August 9, 2024.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
2024 Summer Policy Boot Camp
Attendees on the first day of the 2024 Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
Dozens of students and recent graduates from across the globe gathered August 11–16 for the eighth annual Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp. Codirected by senior fellows Joshua D. Rauh and Scott W. Atlas, the weeklong event featured presenters offering a wide range of perspectives on a variety of crucial topics, including fiscal and monetary policy, America’s global role in the coming decade, the impact of colonialism on Africa’s underdevelopment, and the most efficient way to confront climate change.
Student participants are invited to complete a policy proposal essay that argues for a specific solution to a policy problem, due after the completion of boot camp. Leading entries are honored with the Director’s Award. The Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp is made possible by the generosity of the Kurt Hauser Family.
Outreach
Hoover Institution International Seminar
Cochaired by Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster and National Security Visiting Fellow Nadia Schadlow, the annual Hoover Institution International Seminar brings together mid-career professionals, including diplomats and defense policy officials, from like-minded democracies around the world to discuss security, economic, and diplomatic challenges. In June, participants in the weeklong seminar represented nations including Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, and Sweden. They heard presentations from Hoover fellows on topics including the risks of future AI development, industrial policy and its role in economic statecraft, and solutions to help reverse the global democratic decline.
Participants of the Hoover Institution International Seminar with (front row, starting second from left) Nadia Schadlow, Director Condoleezza Rice, and H.R. McMaster.
Photo: Rod Searcey, 2024
Bochnowski Family Veteran Fellowship Program
Veteran Fellows Adrian Perkins (far left) and Trillitye Paullin (second from right) with Hoover Fellow Jacquelyn Schneider (center right) at a post-9/11 veteran town hall event in San Antonio, Texas. At far right is Donnie Hasseltine, alumnus of the program (2021–22).
PHOTO: HOOVER INSTITUTION, 2023
The Hoover Institution welcomed its third cohort of the Bochnowski Family Veteran Fellowship Program (VFP). The VFP is an annual nonresidential, yearlong, project-based program for military veterans who want to address challenges in the public sector at the local, state, or national level with actionable outcomes, and who seek to inform the formation and implementation of policy. In 2023–24, veteran fellows focused on crafting solutions to a range of issues including resettling Afghan evacuees in the United States, providing pediatric allergy care, creating affordable housing opportunities through faith-based partnerships, and introducing cognitive behavioral therapy in the US armed forces to reduce suicides. This year’s cohort, as well as VFP alumni, participated in Hoover-sponsored town halls across America to discuss how post-9/11 veterans can have far-reaching impacts in their communities.
Public Events at Hoover
Public Panel Featuring Five Eyes Intelligence Chiefs
The heads of the Five Eyes intelligence services, (left to right) Michael Burgess (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation), David Vigneault (Canadian Security Intelligence Service), Ken McCallum (MI5), Christopher Wray (FBI), and Andrew Hampton (New Zealand Security Intelligence Service), visit the Hoover campus on October 17, 2023.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2023
The domestic intelligence chiefs of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand convened at Hoover on October 17 for a public conversation with Director Condoleezza Rice about how to best address threats posed by China to technological innovation in their respective societies and economies. During their visit, the officials also met with academic and industry partners in Silicon Valley.
International Women’s Day at Hoover
Ahead of International Women’s Day, four women from the Hoover fellowship gathered on March 5 to speak about how they overcame barriers and achieved success in academia. They spoke of discrimination they encountered early in their careers and how they overcame challenges when they started families. They also offered advice to students and junior scholars about how to secure mentorship and lay the foundation for academic success.
Left to right, Research Fellow Jennifer Burns and senior fellows Brandice Canes-Wrone, Valerie Ramey, and Caroline Hoxby after speaking at Hoover’s International Women’s Day event on March 5, 2024.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
Markets vs. Mandates Conference
Terry Anderson introduces the Markets vs. Mandates conference on April 8, 2024, using his rancher hat and a bandanna to describe differing views of ranchers versus environmentalists on reintroducing the wolf to pasturelands.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
As the global response to climate change progresses, the Hoover Institution hosted its second annual Markets vs. Mandates conference on April 8. Led by Senior Fellow (adjunct) Terry Anderson and Ilene and Morton Harris Senior Fellow (adjunct) Dominic Parker, the conference sought to foster discussion and debate on how market-based and regulatory frameworks can best govern responses to various environmental concerns, including safeguarding natural areas, managing agricultural land and wildlife, and curtailing greenhouse gas emissions. This year’s conference included a keynote address by New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens, who discussed media coverage of climate issues.
Argentine President Javier Milei Speaks at Hoover
Argentine president Javier Milei visited the Hoover Institution on May 29, delivering a seventy-five-minute speech about his beliefs as a libertarian economist and how his scholarship and his work inform his view about governing Argentina. He argued for a minimalist state and says Argentina’s fiscal future and its return to market credibility depends on retrenchment.
Argentine president Javier Milei speaks in Hauck Auditorium on May 29, 2024.
Photo: Patrick Beaudouin, 2024
Media Productions
The Hoover Institution hosts several nationally influential and informative video series, podcasts, and digital publications. In 2023–24, the Center for Revitalizing America Institutions launched Free Speech Unmuted, in which Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh unpacks First Amendment issues with cohost Jane Bambauer of the University of Florida Law School. Hoover relaunched Economics, Applied, a podcast in which Senior Fellow Steven Davis interviews scholars, drawing lessons for individuals and society based on sound economic reasoning. Through the Economic Policy Working Group, Hoover added Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century to its podcasts: its title inspired by Milton Friedman’s 1962 bestseller, it features Jon Hartley, research assistant to Senior Fellow John Cochrane, in interviews with leading economists about policy issues at the forefront of economic debate.
A live-taping of GoodFellows with senior fellows (left to right) H.R. McMaster, John Cochrane, and Niall Ferguson and the show’s moderator, Policy Fellow Bill Whalen, at the Fall 2023 Retreat.
Photo: Eric Draper, 2024
