Latest / Hoover Daily Report / Hoover Daily Report | July 14, 2026

Transcript

Hoover Daily Report | July 14, 2026 · Hoover Daily Report

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Hoover Daily Report. "Ideas Advancing
• 0:04
  Freedom." It's Tuesday, July 14th, twenty twenty six.
• 0:07
  Today, Jim Mattis writes of a founding father who was driven by his ideals to
• 0:11
  fight for American independence, and by all accounts died before he could achieve
• 0:14
  even more good for his country. Tom Clark says the key to court reform is having
• 0:18
  Congress crank out more legislation. And Dan Berkenstock and coauthor Walter
• 0:22
  Manuel ask how the US will be able to ensure space remains neutral and
• 0:25
  navigable for all if China returns humans to the moon before we do.
• 0:28
  Courage and Sacrifice: Jim Mattis on John Laurens.
• 0:31
  John Laurens, a Revolutionary figure better known to Broadway audiences than
• 0:35
  to the general public, embodied the courage and energy needed to bring a new
• 0:39
  nation into being, General Jim Mattis writes. Laurens’s short life included a
• 0:43
  key role on George Washington’s staff, where he used his diplomatic skill to
• 0:48
  secure funding to keep Congress and the army from collapsing, and the negotiation
• 0:52
  of the British surrender. Seeking out danger on the battlefield, Laurens fought
• 0:57
  in many of the key clashes: Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and others.
• 1:01
  Laurens, the son of a slave trader, also spoke out forcefully for emancipation,
• 1:05
  calling it hypocritical to fight for liberty while denying freedom to some.
• 1:09
  He even sought, unsuccessfully, to enlist black people in Washington’s army.
• 1:14
  Laurens died at twenty-seven, one of the last American officers to fall in the
• 1:18
  Revolution. Washington eulogized him: “He had not a fault. . . . He was excited by
• 1:23
  the purest motives.”.
• 1:24
  The Second Consideration.
• 1:26
  On his Substack, Senior Fellow Tom Clark writes about how to reform US courts, and
• 1:30
  why much of the solution comes from Congress simply passing more law. He
• 1:34
  argues that debates over court reform focus too narrowly on the structure of
• 1:38
  the courts, such as the number of justices or term limits, while ignoring
• 1:42
  the substantive work each branch of government should perform. Citing the
• 1:45
  FTC's antitrust case against Meta that spanned four presidential terms, he
• 1:49
  points out the case languished because Congress has not passed substantive
• 1:53
  antitrust law in the previous fifty years, leaving courts to make economic
• 1:57
  policy they lack the tools to handle. He also cites the Lilly Ledbetter
• 2:01
  pay-discrimination case and says it is an example of legislative-judicial balance
• 2:05
  done right. The Supreme Court misread the statute, but Congress corrected it
• 2:09
  through legislation.
• 2:10
  Does Policy History Have a Future?
• 2:12
  Speaking to the Policy History Conference Plenary in North Carolina last month,
• 2:17
  Research Fellow Jennifer Burns argued that contrary to earlier pronouncements,
• 2:22
  the field of policy history is not dead, and is instead taking on new forms that
• 2:26
  respond to today’s policy challenges. She cited the renewed emphasis on government
• 2:31
  efficiency expressed through efforts such as DOGE, the “abundance movement” on the
• 2:36
  left, and a variety of new pushes to reinvigorate civics education and civic
• 2:40
  engagement across America as examples of new responses that look a lot like policy
• 2:45
  history. “This moment creates opportunity for an approach to history that is
• 2:49
  directly relevant to policy,” she writes.
• 2:52
  The Moon as a Test Case for Coercion Theory: US Interests in a New Space Race.
• 2:56
  Who will set the ground rules for use of space if the Chinese return humans to the
• 3:01
  moon’s surface before America does? That’s the question posed in a new paper
• 3:04
  by Distinguished Research Fellow Dan Berkenstock and Walter J. Manuel of the
• 3:08
  Stanford Space Rendezvous Laboratory. China is planning for its own human moon
• 3:13
  landing mission before 2030. Because existing space-use treaties are basically
• 3:17
  unenforceable and the US military lacks the ability to project power beyond
• 3:21
  Earth’s atmosphere, this scenario presents significant challenges.
• 3:24
  “Whichever country establishes a sustained lunar presence first will have
• 3:28
  outsized power to set the operating rules, claim the most strategically
• 3:32
  valuable sites, and potentially block competitors from accessing critical
• 3:35
  areas,” Berkenstock and Manuel write.
• 3:37
  Why Sanctions Fail, and How to Make Them Work.
• 3:40
  As Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea work together to challenge the
• 3:44
  international order, the United States and other free societies must compete
• 3:49
  with diplomatic, military, and economic tools of statecraft. Sanctions can be an
• 3:54
  effective tool, but only when they are tied to realistic objectives, rigorously
• 3:59
  enforced, and integrated into a broader strategy, argues Senior Fellow H.R.
• 4:03
  McMaster in a new Policy Stories video. Sanctions often fail when they become
• 4:08
  performative, overly broad, poorly enforced, or detached from other elements
• 4:13
  of national power. Cases involving the Soviet Union, Iraq, Iran, and other
• 4:17
  regimes show that effective sanctions require clear objectives, rigorous
• 4:21
  enforcement, humanitarian safeguards, flexibility, and timely action. Used
• 4:26
  well, they can help deter aggression, constrain hostile regimes, and support
• 4:31
  those advocating for freedom.
• 4:32
  Featured Hoover Podcast.
• 4:33
  Matters of Policy & Politics.
• 4:35
  Matters of Policy & Politics, hosted by Bill Whalen, examines the direction of
• 4:39
  federal, state, and local leadership and elections, with an occasional examination
• 4:43
  of national security and geopolitical concerns, all featuring insightful
• 4:47
  analysis provided by Hoover Institution scholars and guests.
• 4:50
  That’s your Hoover Daily Report for Tuesday, July 14th, twenty twenty six.
• 4:55
  Each weekday, we bring you research, analysis, and commentary focused on
• 5:00
  public policy, national security, and the ideas shaping American society and
• 5:04
  government.
• 5:05
  The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is grounded in constitutional
• 5:09
  principles with a commitment to sustaining the safeguards of the American
• 5:13
  way of life.
• 5:14
  Thank you for listening.
• 5:15
  For links to all the articles and interviews mentioned today, visit
• 5:19
  hoover.org slash, HDR.