CSF 2024 | Keynote Address - Dr. Elizabeth C. Economy, Hoover Institution

Keynote Address - Dr. Elizabeth C. Economy,
Hoover Institution

Dr. Elizabeth C. Economy is the Hargrove Senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. During 2021-2023, she served as Senior Advisor for China at the Department of Commerce. She previously was C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director, Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of The World According to China (Polity Press, 2021), The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State , (Oxford University Press, 2018), which was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a prestigious literary award for foreign affairs books, By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World (Oxford University Press, 2014), co-authored with Michael Levi, and the award-winning The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future (Cornell University Press, 2004; 2nd edition, 2010). Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She has published articles in policy and scholarly journals including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Harvard Business Review, and op-eds in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others. She is a frequent commentator on national television and radio. Economy serves on the board of managers of Swarthmore College, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and Council on Foreign Relations. She received her BA with Honors from Swarthmore College, her AM from Stanford University, and her PhD from the University of Michigan.

About the Current Strategy Forum:

This year marks the 73rd annual Current Strategy Forum (CSF) at the Naval War College in Newport, hosted by the Secretary of the Navy. The first CSF was held on 9 May 1949 under the title “Round Table Talks.” This event offers an opportunity for the Nation’s public servants, scholars, and senior military officers to join the College faculty and students to discuss the future strategy of the United States. Over the years, the CSF has expanded to include a cross section of America’s civilian and military leadership to encourage a wide-ranging debate on national and international security. This year’s theme: "America’s Seapower and Maritime Statecraft."

The wars in Europe and the Middle East, and the danger of conflict in Asia and the Pacific, underscore the need for clear strategic guidance to provide for the security and wellbeing of the American people and the partners of the United States around the globe. In a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro introduced the theme of Maritime Statecraft as a guiding principle for understanding the importance of seapower and maritime strategy in upholding an American-led, rules-based international order. The Secretary underscored the importance of strategy in meeting the challenges ahead for the United States. “I always say that I expect my Admirals and Generals to be skilled warfighters. But more so, I demand that they be strategic thinkers — that they strive first to deter our adversaries and, if called upon, be victorious during times of conflict.” The Naval War College, since its founding by Stephen B. Luce and the teachings of Alfred Thayer Mahan, has led professional military education in developing future leaders to be strategic thinkers.

This year’s forum will seek to understand the role of the United States naval forces and maritime statecraft as part of an overall national strategy to meet the strategic challenges before us.