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HOOVER DIGEST RESEARCH + OPINION ON PUBLIC POLICY FALL 2020 • HOOVERDIGEST.ORG THE HOOVER INSTITUTION STANFORD UNIVERSITY HOOVER DIGEST RESEARCH + OPINION ON PUBLIC POLICY FALL 2020 • HOOVERDIGEST.ORG The Hoover Digest explores politics, economics, and history, guided by the HOOVER scholars and researchers of the Hoover Institution, the public policy research DIGEST center at Stanford University. The opinions expressed in the Hoover Digest are those of the authors and PETER ROBINSON do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution, Stanford Editor University, or their supporters. As a journal for the work of the scholars and CHARLES LINDSEY researchers affiliated with the Hoover Institution, the Hoover Digest does not Managing Editor accept unsolicited manuscripts. BARBARA ARELLANO The Hoover Digest (ISSN 1088-5161) is published quarterly by the Hoover Senior Publications Manager, Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, 434 Galvez Mall, Stanford University, Hoover Institution Press Stanford CA 94305-6003. Periodicals Postage Paid at Palo Alto CA and additional mailing offices. HOOVER POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Hoover Digest, Hoover Press, 434 Galvez Mall, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305-6003. INSTITUTION © 2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University THOMAS F. STEPHENSON CONTACT INFORMATION SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Chair, Board of Overseers Comments and suggestions: $30 a year to US and Canada SUSAN R. McCAW Vice Chair, Board of Overseers [email protected] (international rates higher). (650) 723-1471 http://hvr.co/subscribe CONDOLEEZZA RICE Tad and Dianne Taube Director Reprints: Phone: (877) 705-1878 [email protected] (toll free in US, Canada) ERIC WAKIN (650) 723-3373 or (773) 753-3347 (international) Deputy Director, Robert H. Malott Director Write: Hoover Digest, of Library & Archives Subscription Fulfillment, PO Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637 SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ON THE COVER CHRISTOPHER S. DAUER Czar Nicholas II, the last ruler of impe- KAREN WEISS MULDER rial Russia, leads his troops in what DANIEL P. KESSLER this poster proclaims to be a holy war. Director of Research This highly stylized image, reminiscent of heroic paintings from the medieval ASSOCIATE era, shows the czar at the head of a DIRECTORS modern army of infantry and Cossacks DENISE ELSON arrayed against the forces of Germany SHANA FARLEY and Austria-Hungary during World JEFFREY M. JONES War I. Nicholas, of course, did not lead COLIN STEWART his armies to victory; Russia suffered ERYN WITCHER TILLMAN severe losses in the war and the czar (Bechtel Director of Public Affairs) eventually abdicated. Then came the ASSISTANT revolution. See story, page 220. DIRECTORS VISIT HOOVER INSTITUTION ONLINE | www.hoover.org SARA MYERS SHANNON YORK FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA DOWNLOAD OUR APP TWITTER @HooverInst Stay up to date on the latest FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/HooverInstStanford analysis, commentary, and news YOUTUBE www.youtube.com/HooverInstitution from the Hoover Institution. ITUNES itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/hoover-institution Find daily articles, op-eds, blogs, INSTAGRAM https://instagram.com/hooverinstitution audio, and video in one app. Fall 2020 HOOVER DIGEST JUSTICE 9 What Will You Do? Protest takes us only so far. Americans must reject recrimination, face old problems squarely, and seek justice for all. By Condoleezza Rice 13 Still Shining To Hoover fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali, America’s promise remains undimmed. By Peter Robinson 22 Pride and Humility A fresh commitment to America’s founding principles and leadership in the cause of human rights. By Peter Berkowitz 29 Genuine Hope and Change “Defunding the police” is just a new way for cities to throw good money after bad—bad social programs, that is. There are better ways to tackle crime and promote opportunity. By John Yoo and Horace Cooper 37 Black Livelihoods Matter Rigid regulations still deny low-income African-Americans the upward mobility they need. By David R. Henderson HOOVER DIGEST • FALL 2020 3 THE PANDEMIC 44 Ironies of the Plague Year Protesting violence with violence, destroying economies to save them—these have been months of bitter paradox. By Victor Davis Hanson 49 To Protect and to Serve As globalization totters and disease spreads, an old principle, the sovereignty of the individual state, re-emerges as a bulwark of freedom. By Russell A. Berman 54 Democracy Endures The coronavirus has persuaded democracies around the world to trade individual rights for public health measures, surrendering liberty for safety—or so we keep hearing. Not so, says Josef Joffe. Citizens are not “endlessly docile.” 60 Taiwan’s Triumph Snubbed by the World Health Organization and the world at large, Taiwan has performed magnificently during the pandemic. It deserves the world’s praise—and restored recognition. By Michael R. Auslin 4 HOOVER DIGEST • FALL 2020 THE ECONOMY 65 Choose Economic Freedom To preserve our economic liberty, we must remember how difficult it was to win. By John B. Taylor FOREIGN POLICY 70 Dangers of Disengagement Should we roll back US foreign commitments? When? By how much? These are serious questions, and simplistic thinking doesn’t help. By H. R. McMaster 77 A Game of Finesse “Cut and run” or “stay the course” in the Middle East? This is a false choice. We should think instead in terms of a continuum of ways to use both soft power and hard. By James O. Ellis Jr. CHINA 83 Cold Days Ahead As we seek to manage our newly frosty relationship with China, lessons from the Cold War can help. By Timothy Garton Ash THE BALKANS 88 Serbia, Russia, and the New Great Game After twenty years of uneasy peace in the Balkans, Belgrade is moving closer to Europe—but also displaying Russian- style autocracy while flirting with China. By Jovana Lazić Knežević and Norman M. Naimark HOOVER DIGEST • FALL 2020 5 EDUCATION 98 The Day after Juneteenth Thanks to charter schools, black students are taking giant steps forward. Why are politicians and unions trying to hold them back? By Thomas Sowell 103 Empty Pedestals, Hollow Minds Those who failed to learn history are especially eager to erase it. By Chester E. Finn Jr. 108 Your Money and Your Life Call it financial wellness: Hoover’s Michael J. Boskin and John Shoven have launched an innovative personal-finance class to guide students on “your life journey.” By May Wong HEALTH CARE 113 A Free and Healthy Market Singapore’s health care system thrives on transparency and competition. Why can’t ours? By George P. Shultz and Vidar Jorgensen LAW 117 Fear Is Not Our Master The Constitution is clear: even during emergencies, government powers are never unlimited. By Clint Bolick 6 HOOVER DIGEST • FALL 2020 CALIFORNIA 121 Rude Awakenings Commit an outrage, react to the outrage, repeat: why do California’s racial crises recur? By Bill Whalen 126 The Hunger (for Admission) Games The University of California’s decision to scrap standardized tests earns an “F.” The move does nothing for fairer admissions or better schools. By Chester E. Finn Jr. 131 More Students Left Behind Decades ago, California voters soundly rejected race-based college admissions, and women and minority applicants thrived. A ballot measure threatens to reverse that progress. By Lee E. Ohanian INTERVIEW 136 “Looking in the Wrong Direction” Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works, explains that all innovation involves an element of surprise—as do challenges, such as Covid-19, that we can only meet by innovating. “We should have been worrying about pandemics all along.” By Peter Robinson VALUES 148 Vandalizing History Today’s ideologues are only re-enacting the same tired melodrama that dates from the Sixties—and the audience must not fail to applaud. By Bruce S. Thornton HOOVER DIGEST • FALL 2020 7 HISTORY AND CULTURE 153 Self-haters, Sit Down Western civilization, the pearl of great price. By Andrew Roberts 166 From Flanders Fields The red poppies of November are not just remembrances of things past. They suggest losses yet to come. By Niall Ferguson 171 Days of Reckoning As the year of the coronavirus nears an end, consider the devastating flu epidemic of 1918–20, an even more severe trial of the American spirit. By George H. Nash HOOVER ARCHIVES 181 “America First” and a Road Not Taken The records of the America First Committee raise an intriguing question: what if a celebrity isolationist had captured the White House in 1940? By Jean McElwee Cannon 201 “Dear Mr. President-elect . ” While a banking crisis deepens in early 1933, outgoing president Herbert Hoover makes an extraordinary gesture: a letter to his successor, Franklin Roosevelt, seeking his help. By Bertrand M. Patenaude 220 On the Cover 8 HOOVER DIGEST • FALL 2020 JUSTICE JUSTICE What Will You Do? Protest takes us only so far. Americans must reject recrimination, face old problems squarely, and seek justice for all. By Condoleezza Rice ords cannot dull the pain of George Floyd’s family. Like many black families before them, they find themselves in the spotlight for reasons that every parent, sibling, and Wspouse dreads. While his death has catalyzed a symbolic call to action, he was not a symbol to his loved ones—he was a father, brother, and son. I can only pray that they find the “peace that passes understanding.” In the wake of Floyd’s death, Americans and people around the world are experiencing shock, grief, outrage—a set of emotions that too often are repeated. If the past is a guide, these feelings will fade and we will return to our lives. But something tells me—not this time. Floyd’s horrific death should be enough to finally move us to positive action. Perhaps this is like the moment in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Or perhaps this is like that fateful Sunday in Septem- ber 1963, quite personal to me, when a bomb in a Birmingham church killed four girls from my neighborhood and shook our nation to its core.