Hoover History Lab

The Hoover History Lab strives for maximum impact, with three vectors of outreach into our society. We have a close relationship with our government and work closely with our nation’s intelligence agencies and foreign counterparts on long-term strategic analysis. We also connect with leading global CIOs, CEOs, and other executives to apprise them of our research in the larger world context in which their industries operate.

Additionally, because our educational mission is at the core of what we do, we are building a network of partnerships with leading American educators and organizations who seek to remedy the gaps often found in today’s history curricula. Through these relationships, we aim to support teachers seeking to help students understand history by working with original sources and learning to analyze varying and conflicting perspectives. We also facilitate student learning through the production of engaging, relevant curriculum materials.

Learn more about our three main vectors of impact, below.

The Hoover History Lab regularly hosts events for high-level government representatives, including analysts from the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the Department of Defense, the CIA, and Five Eyes allies, as well as leading scientists and private sector investors, to facilitate sharing of the insights from the Hoover History Lab research team.

Our annual Global Futures event, modeled on the unclassified Global Trends report issued every four years by the NIC, examines such topics as economic power, science, and technological power, hard or military power, alliance power, soft and sharp power, and new forms of power.

Hoover History Lab brings the chief investment officers (CIOs) from the largest pools of capital to the Hoover campus to connect with our scholars, scientists and engineers, and national security professionals for problem-solving in current national and global affairs. Future events will also include prominent industry CEOs and C-suite executives.

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Central to our mission is education. We begin right here at Stanford, where our Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice and Hoover History Lab Stephen Kotkin teach an annual course exploring geopolitics and geoeconomics, institutions and technologies, citizenship and leadership, considering the key drivers of continuity or change and the nature of power. Additional courses on topics in consequential history are taught by our postdoctoral Hoover History Research and Teaching Fellows. Beyond our university outreach, we are committed to making an impact on high school and community college education in America through the development of curriculum materials in the areas of our expertise—in print, audio, and video formats—and through supporting the growth of educational events for students through partnerships with leading American educators who align with our vision.