Talks from the Hoover Institution Niall Ferguson and Andrew Preston on the Invention of National Security
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Mar 18, 2026 Andrew Preston, distinguished professor of diplomacy and statecraft at the University of Virginia and author of Total Defense, joins to explore the rise of national security. He traces its 1930s origins, links to the New Deal, and how rearmament and WWII reshaped institutions and culture. The conversation also covers homeland security after 9/11 and whether current policies continue or break with past traditions.
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National Security As Protection Of An American Way Of Life
- National security is a new, broader way of thinking about self-defense that protects an American way of life globally.
- Andrew Preston traces this to FDR in the late 1930s who framed threats as chain reactions requiring preemptive care beyond territorial borders.
Threat Scale Made National Security Politically Viable
- The 1930s produced qualitatively greater threats than pre-1918 warnings, making FDR's national security argument politically viable.
- Earlier alarms about Japan or Germany lacked realism and political payoff until the scale of 1930s threats changed perceptions.
New Deal Ideas Enabled The National Security State
- The New Deal's domestic programs provided the conceptual and political toolkit to extend government protection to foreign threats.
- FDR repurposed social-welfare logic (security against unemployment and old age) to argue for a government duty to shield citizens from global dangers.
