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Hoover Daily Report | April 24, 2026 · Hoover Daily Report

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  Welcome to "the Hoover Daily Report". Ideas Advancing
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  Freedom. It's Friday, April 24th, twenty twenty six.
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  This Friday, the Hoover Institution announces a major new initiative to
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  envision a new economic and security commons for the United States and other
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  free societies; Abbas Milani speaks with H.R. McMaster about current conditions in
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  Iran and the possible futures for Iran and its people following the war; and
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  Niall Ferguson joins Jon Hartley for a discussion of networks, empires, and the
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  economic and political history of the West over recent centuries.
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  Finding the Ideas—and the Confidence—to Weave the World Anew.
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  Today, Hoover Institution Director Condoleeza Rice announces the creation of
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  a new all-of-Hoover effort to address the breakdown of the old global order. A new
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  initiative will build solutions that show how America and other free societies can
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  respond to a period of profound global transformation defined by large-scale
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  geopolitical shifts and rapid technological change. This Hoover
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  Initiative for an Economic and Security Commons will involve experts across
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  Hoover, Stanford University, and beyond to develop concrete ideas on how America
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  and its partners might adapt to this new era. In a column released today on
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  Freedom Frequency, Rice describes the new effort as one where we will share ideas
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  engaging with partners around the world and work to map the global and political
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  landscape with teams focusing on nearly thirty specific topics. Our initiative
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  will encompass economics, security, and technology, cutting across the usual
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  disciplinary divides.
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  The Iran Wars: History, Ideology, and Prospects for Peace.
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  In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Abbas Milani discuss
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  the Iran War, its effects on the Iranian people, and prospects for peace and
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  security in the Middle East and beyond. Reflecting on the war in Iran at this
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  critical moment, Milani and McMaster discuss the conditions inside the
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  country, the state of the regime, and the widening gap between society and the
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  ruling system. They examine how power is exercised within an increasingly
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  fragmented structure and whether the regime’s grip is weakening under internal
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  pressure. The conversation explores possible futures for Iran and the broader
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  Middle East, including the roles of major powers such as China and Russia,
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  prospects for negotiations with the United States, and the importance of
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  supporting the Iranian people. Milani highlights Iran's historical significance
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  and the mission of scholarship and policy engagement at the Hoover Institution in
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  shaping understanding of Iran and its future.
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  A History of the West After Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations with Niall Ferguson.
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  On the latest episode of the Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century
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  podcast, Policy Fellow Jon Hartley and Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson explore
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  Ferguson’s career as a historian and prolific public intellectual. Hartley
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  asks Ferguson about the power of networks, a concept that figures heavily
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  in Ferguson’s books The House of Rothschild, volumes one (1998) and two
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  (1999), and The Square and the Tower (2017). Hartley and Ferguson then discuss
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  the rise and fall of empire, which Ferguson charted in his books Empire
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  (2003) and The Great Degeneration (2013). The conversation then turns to America’s
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  global role, drawing on Ferguson’s Colossus (2005), and the enduring legacy
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  of Adam Smith on the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations. Economist Hartley
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  and historian Ferguson conclude by considering the future of the
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  Anglosphere, economic growth, and 21st-century socialism.
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  The Free World’s Competitive Edge.
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  In this excerpt from Finishing the Inflation Job and New Challenges for
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  Monetary Policy, Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster insists that truly understanding
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  what motivates China will spur free societies toward the strength and
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  cohesion they need to prevail in the 21st century. The free world needs to discard
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  complacency and illusions, he argues, which include the false belief that
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  Beijing is merely reacting against US actions instead of steadily working
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  toward a future of its own making. China’s physical, ideological, and
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  financial coercion advance its power abroad, McMaster explains, calling on the
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  United States and its allies to acknowledge the stakes.
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  The former national security advisor concludes that winning this competition
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  will demand a combination of strength, statecraft, and belief in the
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  attractiveness of liberty and opportunity.
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  Featured Research Initiative: Renewing Indigenous Economies.
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  The Hoover Project on Renewing Indigenous Economies is dedicated to understanding
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  how the rich history of governance, entrepreneurship, and trade allowed
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  Indigenous peoples to thrive before colonization and how restoring these
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  traditions can help rebuild Indigenous economies, cultures, and communities from
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  the ground up.
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  That’s your Hoover Daily Report for Friday, April 24th, twenty twenty six.
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  Each weekday, we bring you research, analysis, and commentary focused on
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  public policy, national security, and the ideas shaping American society and
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  government.
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  The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is grounded in constitutional
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  principles with a commitment to sustaining the safeguards of the American
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  way of life.
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  Thank you for listening.
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  For links to all the articles and interviews mentioned today, visit
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  hoover.org slash, HDR.