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Pragmatic Engagement Amidst Global Uncertainty: Three Major Challenges

via Analysis
Friday, December 11, 2015

The United States is exceptionally secure, but many Americans do not feel secure. This anxiety stems from the fact that the United States faces several long-term threats that may or may not emerge. The Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Foreign Policy and Grand Strategy has produced a national security strategy that acknowledges this uncertainty and hedges as well as engages, recognizing that resources are not limitless.

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Why America Can't Win Its Wars

by Peter R. Mansoorvia Analysis
Thursday, December 10, 2015

Poor strategic decision making since 2001 has involved the United States in messy civil wars that will take years, if not decades, to resolve. In Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, regime change has come easily, but a limited commitment to stabilizing those nations has resulted in messy, bloody, and expensive aftermaths. Those wars show that military success alone cannot ensure a stable post-conflict outcome. Only the presence of US military forces, economic aid, and a long-term political commitment from US policy makers to rebuild and restore defeated nations can ensure enduring peace.

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The White House’s Seven Deadly Errors

by Mark Moyarvia Analysis
Thursday, December 10, 2015

Seven broad errors account for America’s recent inability to turn tactical successes into strategic victories. In every instance, responsibility for the error has belonged to the White House. Excessive confidence in democratization and poor choices of allies left sustainment of strategic gains to governments incapable of preserving domestic order. Attempts to defeat insurgencies on the cheap, by speeding up counterinsurgency or relying on surgical strikes, allowed insurgencies to survive. Refusal to commit or maintain US ground forces undercut American efforts to assist and stabilize allies. By conveying intentions of military withdrawal, the United States encouraged opportunists to side with its enemies.

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How We Fight in the Twenty-First Century: Winning Battles While Losing Wars

by Bing West via Analysis
Thursday, December 10, 2015

The intent of this essay is to shed light upon why the United States is performing so poorly in twenty-first-century warfare. War is the act of relentlessly destroying and killing until the enemy is broken physically and morally, and no longer resists the advancement of our policy objectives. By that definition, President Obama eschews war. Plus, our generals have imposed rules of engagement that prevent the application of our relative advantages in air and precision firepower. Our enemies do not fear us and our friends do not trust us. Sensible steps can turn that around, but that depends upon the next commander in chief. Our beloved nation does not have a martial spirit, and perhaps does not need one. It does need a military inculcated with a warrior spirit.

Nuclear Weapons
Analysis and Commentary

A Renewed Vision For Nuclear Risk Reduction

by Michael J. Mazarrmentioning Hoover Institutionvia Newsweek
Monday, July 6, 2015

This essay from the Hoover Digest argues that a new strategic era is emerging, one that is more multipolar, more grass roots-oriented, populated by a wider array of empowered actors, and characterized by greater degrees of identity-seeking rivalry and competition.

Analysis and Commentary

Licensing Small Modular Reactors: An Overview Of Regulatory And Policy Issues

by William C. Ostendorff, Amy Cubbagevia Hoover Daily Report
Monday, July 6, 2015

Small modular reactors (SMRs) have recently garnered significant interest in the United States and abroad. The responsibility to review and license SMRs falls to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has been closely watching small modular reactor developments and is currently conducting detailed pre-application reviews.

Analysis and Commentary

Small Modular Reactors: A Call For Action

by William J. Madia , Regis Matzie , Gary Vinevia Hoover Daily Report
Monday, July 6, 2015

The US Small Modular Reactor (SMR) effort is at a critical juncture. SMRs offer a new approach to a familiar energy technology, one with significant environmental, energy security, and international strategic advantages. Despite industry support and a successful start to government licensing programs, a number of interrelated economic challenges remain.

Analysis and Commentary

Failed States

with Francis Fukuyama, Stephen D. Krasner, Amy Zegart, Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry, James D. Fearonvia Working Group on Foreign Policy
Thursday, May 14, 2015

This essay series focuses on two critical questions: When should the U.S. intervene in weak states and what form should this intervention take?

Preface: The War That Must Never Be Fought

by George P. Shultzvia Analysis
Thursday, March 12, 2015

The War That Must Never Be Fought borrows its title from President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union message of 1984 in which he declared "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” In this introduction, former Secretary of State George Shultz relates how he felt on learning that U.S. atomic bombs had destroyed two major Japanese cities and paved the way for the end of World War ll in the Pacific.

Are Efficiency and Equity in School Finance Substitutes or Complements?

by Caroline M. Hoxbyvia Journal of Economic Perspectives
Sunday, September 1, 1996

Since desegregation, the most important changes to American elementary and secondary schooling have almost certainly been in the realm of school finance.

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