In 2000, then-Stanford Provost Condoleezza Rice published her foreign policy outlook in the essay, “Promoting the National Interest” in Foreign Affairs outlining key priorities that the United States would need to address in the next administration. Among the concerns were “building a military ready to ensure American power, coping with rogue regimes, and managing Beijing and Moscow.” Moreover, she said, “above all, the next president must be comfortable with America’s special role as the world’s leader.”
As we welcome Professor Rice back to campus after eight years of the most distinguished national service, we at the Stanford Review must define our own priorities. We believe that Stanford students are tomorrow’s leaders and should therefore stay in touch with national politics. We will cover national and world news as these times most definitely will have an effect on us. As the new administration risks our futures on a $900,000,000,000 spending bill—much of which will be our debt to pay off in future taxes—we cannot pretend that our Stanford bubble is actually a bubble. What happens in Washington, Baghdad, and Waziristan all have effects on what happens on Palm Drive.
Just as Stanford is shaped by what goes on nationally, Stanford shapes national politics—Condoleezza Rice being only the most obvious example. We will utilize on-campus resources and expertise that both shapes and develops public policy.
A shift in focus in this volume is that we will emphasize the “Stanford” part of the Stanford Review at a heightened pace. As the student body faces budget cuts due to unsuccessful investing, we will keep a close watch on how our money is being spent. We will also have suggestions of our own as to how the university should spend its money—suggestions that are unlikely to arise from any other campus publication. As Stanford’s conservative publication, it is our duty to weigh our voice on campus to counter what is usually the silencing voice of liberalism. Exit poll data, faculty donations, white plaza rallies, and class discussions all confirm the overwhelming bias towards one way of thinking. Conservatives, libertarians, contrarians, and those just interested in the condition of Stanford University should take refuge in this coming Volume. Once it becomes apparent that the new administration in Washington cannot turn water into wine, hopefully some of the 90% of students who voted for “Change” will start to read about the change that our publication seeks: fiscal responsibility at Stanford and at the national level, protection of free market principles, and probably most importantly… intellectual diversity at Stanford.
Stanford needs our voice to be heard just as if 90% of the school were conservative there would need to be an enhanced voice for minority viewpoints. Intellectual and ideologically diversity are good for everyone and make everyone’s thought process more mature and acute. In that sense, we believe we are providing the university with a much-needed service. Within our publication, we will have debates amongst ourselves because just as there is more than one way to think, there is more than one way to be conservative. We welcome these debates, but we will maintain our identity as one of the most-respected conservative publications in the country. We will also maintain our identity as proud Stanford students.
So despite this unluckiest of weekends, today being “Friday the 13th” and tomorrow being Valentine’s Day (another unlucky day for many), we defiantly invoke our motto “Fiat Lux” (let there be light) as XLII Volume commences. Ignoring the superstitions, we expect good fortune in the coming months for our publication. It might be a dark winter day in Washington, but it is morning at the Stanford Review.
Best,
Brian O’Connell