Hinge of History : Governance in an Emerging New World

The world is at an inflection point. Advancing technologies are creating new opportunities and challenges. Great demographic changes are occurring rapidly, with significant consequences. Governance everywhere is in disarray. A new world is emerging.

These are some of the key insights to emerge from a series of interdisciplinary roundtables and global expert contributions hosted by the Hoover Institution. In these pages, George P. Shultz and James Timbie examine a range of issues shaping our present and future, region by region.

Concrete proposals address migration, reversing the decline of K–12 education, updating the social safety net, maintaining economic productivity, protecting our democratic processes, improving national security, and more. Meeting these transformational challenges will require international cooperation, constructive engagement, and strong governance. The United States is well positioned to ride this wave of change—and lead other nations in doing the same.

George P. Shultz, the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, has had an eminent career in government, academia, and business. He has held four federal cabinet posts, taught at three of this country’s great universities, and was president of a major engineering firm. He is the co-author of Choose Economic Freedom (Hoover Institution Press, 2020). James Timbie is an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. A physicist and arms control negotiator, he was previously a senior advisor at the U.S. State Department between 1983 and 2016. He is the co-editor of Beyond Disruption (Hoover Institution Press, 2018).