The research mission of
the Hoover Institution
is to advance the ideas of
free enterprise, free markets,
liberty and
democratic governance
at national security.
It's best encapsulated by
the phrase ideas defining
a free society to improve
the lot of mankind
here in the United
States and abroad.
There is no think
tank physically so far
from Washington as tightly
connected to it as the Hoover
Institution.
And the work that comes out
of the Hoover Institution
is substantively different
than the work of other
think tanks by being
part of a university.
It's much more data-driven.
It struggles much more to
connect the theory of economics
or political science to the
practicalities of problems
governments are addressing.
From about 1919 until
1959, it was fundamentally
a library and archives
that was designed
to acquire materials
that spoke to the causes
and consequences of war.
In 1959, the institution
took a very strong stance
to contributing to
public policy that
supported ideas of limited
and constitutional government,
free enterprise, and liberty
and democratic governance.
We have about 150
scholars who do
research that bears on
public policy in these areas.
The role of the
Hoover Institution
is to make sure that this
research is top flight
and to make sure that the
implications of this research
gets out and into areas that
will affect public policy.
The intellectual
landscape at Hoover
is both diverse and
extraordinarily vast,
and so the best part
about being at Hoover
is actually the other
fellows that I learn from.
Being required to
defend your position,
being required to listen to
the other person's argument--
diversity of thought is the
single most important way
to get better ideas
out into operation.
All of that is grounded
in a real, genuine belief
that ideas that
advance freedom need
to be kept in the center
of a public policy agenda.
And that's the grounding
that holds us all together.
For more, please visit
us at Stanford.edu.
