Thank you for joining us at the Hoover Institution’s Vertex Forum.

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Over the course of the forum, we explored a set of questions that are only becoming more urgent: how technological change is reshaping economic power, national security, and the institutions that underpin free societies. What made the conversations distinctive was not only the range of perspectives, but the rigor, clarity, and intellectual honesty with which Hoover scholars engaged them.

We have gathered a selection of materials to extend those conversations beyond the forum itself. Think of this as a brief study guide, bringing together key ideas, recent work from Hoover fellows and participants, and a preview of the kind of ongoing inquiry that Vertex is designed to foster.

Read Secretary Rice’s new column in Freedom Frequency, in which she announces the launch of the initiative, reflects on the erosion of the post-World War II international order, and calls for renewed confidence in the power of free people to build and defend liberty. 

At Vertex, Senior Fellow Philip Zelikow, who along with Secretary Rice, Steven J. Davis, and Stephen Kotkin, chair the steering committee of the Economic and Security Commons, described a key tenet of the initiative: to examine how the United States can reclaim a compelling vision rooted in the social contract of the republic, its confidence as a nation, its belief in opportunity, and voluntary partnerships throughout the world.

Relying on these foundations, and leading by example, the American republic ascended to global leadership and have helped sustain peace, stability, and prosperity in the world for three quarters of a century.

In this session recorded at Vertex, two of Hoover’s leading economists, John Cochrane and Steven Davis, argued that while artificial intelligence is already emerging as a powerful economic force, its greatest impact is likely to come through higher productivity, lower costs, and a reshaping of the workplace. The conversation also raised a broader concern: that the greater risk may lie not in AI itself, but in policy failure—overregulation, weak education, and rigid labor systems – that could prevent the economy from adapting and capturing the gains of technological change.

• John Cochrane argues in a recent essay that AI regulation poses a greater threat to democracies and economies than AI itself. In this short and engaging video, Cochrane explains that AI is more likely to free workers from routine activities into higher value work, and make society richer in the long-run.
• Read Steven Davis’s and colleagues’ March 2026 research on AI adoption in the workplace, which finds that a vast majority of firms use AI, with higher user rates at younger and more productive firms.

In examining the global security and economic commons, China’s role on the world stage cannot be overlooked. At Vertex, Research Fellow Dan Wang discussed his bestselling book, Breakneck, which argues that China’s massive manufacturing capacity, rapid electrification, and relentless infrastructure building are giving China a globally leading competitive edge—as Western democracies grapple with burdensome regulation, excessive litigation, and political gridlock. 

Additionally, Senior Fellow Elizabeth Economy talked about her work leading Hoover’s program on US, China, and the World, her perspectives on the upcoming Trump-Xi summit in Beijing later this month, and China’s strategy and vision for its future

• Read Dan Wang as he describes China’s “enduring formula for wealth and power” in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Also read Wang’s New York Times essay in which he explains why China’s leadership is “pushing intensely at substituting electricity for oil.” In March, Wang discussed Breakneck on Hoover’s Secrets of Statecraft podcast, with historian Andrew Roberts.
• Read Elizabeth Economy’s essay in Foreign Affairs earlier this year, in which she discusses Beijing’s strategy to “seize new frontiers of power.” Watch Economy in this short video describe China’s territorial ambitions. 

At Vertex, Senior Fellow Stephen Haber unpacked one of North America’s most important relationships. Mexico is now the United States’ top trading partner, with nearly $1 trillion in cross-border trade and shared stakes in security, energy, and regional stability. Drawing on Hoover’s Program on Foundations of Economic Prosperity and dialogues it hosts with US and Mexican leaders and experts, he explored where the partnership is thriving, areas of friction, and why deeper bi-lateral cooperation is needed.

• Read about the Hoover Program on the Foundation of Prosperity’s conference in Mexico City earlier this year to examine the future of USMCA and bilateral cooperation.

Vertex convened two timely forums on the future of war with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and the future of economic security and global trade with Steven Davis, offering perspective on the strategic and economic pressures shaping today’s Economic and Security Commons.

• In a recent essay at Freedom Frequency, Davis examines the impacts of the Trump administration’s dizzying array of tariffs and other trade policies, which have caused a rupture in the international trade order that has fostered prosperity and security for than 80 years.
• Watch H.R. McMaster talk about how the United States must develop specific and strategic plans of action to prevent conflict and restore credible deterrence.

Despite heavy losses to the Islamic Republic’s military and a decapitation of its political leadership, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and the economic costs of the war in Iran continue to rise. Meanwhile markets are behaving as though the conflict has already passed. In his talk at Vertex, Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson examined whether the America and the free world are witnessing the wisdom of crowds, or a dangerous misreading of reality?
 
In another conversation, Iran scholar Abbas Milani, Admiral Gary Roughead, and Philip Zelikow, spoke in depth about the current military and political situation in the Middle East, prospects for the Islamic Republic’s survival, and a resolution to the conflict.

• Read Ferguson’s recent article in The Free Press, “The Gap Between Truth (Social) and Reality on Iran.
• In another article at The Free Press, Ferguson along with Zelikow and the Council on Foreign Relation’s Richard Haass outline a US plan for re-opening the Strait of Hormuz on America’s terms.
• Watch Milani on a recent episode of GoodFellows with Cochrane, Ferguson, and McMaster discuss life within the beleaguered theocracy. In this episode of Today’s Battlegrounds, released on the heels of the Vertex Forum, Milani discusses with McMaster the war’s effect on the Iranian people and prospects for peace and security in the Middle East.

How does America lead in a world rife with conflict, instability, and geopolitical risk. These were the topics of a series of conversations featuring Secretary Rice, and Senior Fellows Amy Zegart, Philip Zelikow, and Stephen Kotkin.
 
In the introductory video played at Vertex announcing the Economic and Security Commons initiative Zelikow invokes Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1953 inaugural address, quoting his line “whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America,” underscoring that the challenges of our time are solvable—but only if renewal begins at home.
 
In closing that video. Director Rice urged that as the nation approaches its 250th birthday, Americans should look ahead and begin anew—starting fresh conversations about how to renew America as an example to free societies everywhere and reinforce the American leadership on which a stable world still depends.

• Read Condoleezza Rice in the September/October 2024 issue of Foreign Affairs, in which she argues that the world still needs America and America still needs the world.
• Read Stephen Kotkin in Foreign Affairs’ inaugural 2026 issue, as he describes the forces that threaten authoritarian regimes.
• Read Amy Zegart in a February article of Freedom Frequency, in which she provides analysis on Anthropic AI’s standoff with the Pentagon.
• Read an essay by Rice and Zegart on the world’s complex threat environment in the May/June 2018 of Harvard Business Review. In 2018, Rice and Zegart, co-wrote the bestseller Political Risk: How Businesses and Organization Can Anticipate Global Insecurity.

We are grateful for your participation and for the seriousness you brought to these discussions.
 
Vertex is intended not as a single convening, but as the beginning of a continuing exchange, one that connects research, policy, and practice in a moment when each depends on the other. We hope the materials shared here are useful to you, and that you will continue the conversation with colleagues and collaborators.
 
We look forward to staying in touch and to welcoming you back for future convenings at Hoover.

Save the Date for the 2027 Vertex Forum:

April 14-16, 2027 in Arizona