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This week marked the passing of Max Singer, the co-founder of Hudson Institute, after a long and valiant battle with cancer.
Singer is responsible for creating a think tank out of an idea. Working closely with Herman Kahn in the 1960s, Singer pioneered a multifaceted approach to policy research that still resonates at Hudson today, one that recognizes that policymakers need to consider the broadest possible perspective in arriving at solutions to seemingly insoluble policy dilemmas. This approach, which guided Singer through six decades of work, focuses on the critical importance of geostrategy, historical trends, the unique national security challenges facing liberal democracies, and the transformative role of human ingenuity as embodied in technology and innovation.
As Kahn's intellectual foil, Singer possessed the operational focus to build Hudson and attract major research grants from the Department of Defense, the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Civil Defense. During his tenure as Hudson's second president, he led the development of trademark research on deterrence strategy and nuclear proliferation, helping shape President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
“Max was a cherished friend, a model of intellectual probity, and an active scholar until the very end," said Ken Weinstein, Hudson Institute President and CEO. "Through the decades he made invaluable contributions to the Institute, from before its founding as a young Harvard Law graduate who joined Herman Kahn in the quest to form a different kind of think tank, through numerous critically acclaimed books to, most recently, Wall Street Journal op-eds written from his chemotherapy ward in Jerusalem. We are deeply grateful for his life. This loss will be felt acutely.”
Former Hudson President and Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels noted that "Max was a highly creative, but equally a courageous thinker. When I think of a 'Hudson Tradition' he is one of the first people who comes to mind, and he should, because he as much as anyone with the exception of Herman Kahn created that tradition."
Below, we invite you to read a few highlights from Max Singer's body of work.
Thinking the Unthinkable
During the height of the Cold War, Max Singer helped Herman Kahn write On Thermonuclear War and Thinking About the Unthinkable, books that put Kahn on the map for his fearlessness in approaching, and thinking through, the consequences of a nuclear Armageddon.
Similarly, Singer wasn't afraid to bravely challenge conventional wisdom. Below are a few examples of his original contributions.
"The World Didn’t Agree to a Nuclear-Armed Iran, Even in 10 Years," The Wall Street Journal, 2017
"Democracies don’t need to commit to changing the Iranian regime, or to collaborate actively with Iranian dissidents. Even moderate political and social support by the U.S. and Europe for Iran’s internal opposition could scare the regime into postponing its efforts to get nuclear weapons. No military attack, even by the U.S., could reliably destroy all of the Iranian weapons-production facilities, but complete destruction is not necessary."
"The Challenging Questions about the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program," Hudson Institute, 2012
"While it is very difficult for outsiders to have much confidence in the little that is known about the internal differences among elements of the regime’s leadership, it is plausible that there are important elements that prefer that Iran not go so far with its nuclear weapons program that it actually produces an operational nuclear force. Among other things, it seems likely that the existence of ready nuclear weapons, which would have to be held by some particular organization, would influence the internal balance of power. There would be gainers and losers."
Books by Max Singer
The History of the Future: The Shape of the World to Come Is Visible Today (Lexington Books, 2011)
Human character has always been shaped by struggles against poverty, tyranny, and war. History of the Future argues that poverty, tyranny, and war will be largely eliminated in the future. Without the struggles that have plagued humanity throughout history, Singer says we will have to find new ways to shape character. In this work which continues the research into the future that Singer began with Herman Kahn a half-century ago, Singer asks the important question: will people really be better off when the whole world has become wealthy, free, and peaceful?
The Real World Order: Zones of Peace, Zones of Turmoil (CQ Press, 1996), recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order
Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky take issue with traditional realists by arguing that democracies do not fight each other, and that consequently military balance-of-power considerations will be supplanted by economic struggles within the "zones of peace." The "zones of turmoil"-much of the non-industrial world-will make steady, if discontinuous, progress toward development. While one can dispute a number of their specific judgments and recommendations-for example, that air power confers a decisive military advantage on its possessors, or that the United Nations could be reformed through the formation of a "democratic caucus" within it-the book goes against the grain and raises stimulating questions about long-term change in international relations. - Francis Fukuyama, Foreign Affairs
Passage to a Human World: The Dynamics of Creating Global Wealth (Transaction Books, 1988)
Optimism about the world economy needs a boost from time to time. It gets a pleasant one from this celebration of growth and rebuttal of alarms. There are engaging arguments-for example, "The basic thing that happens in economic development is that people become more valuable." More modest than many who write in this vein, Mr. Singer often suggests how difficulties can be dealt with rather than defining them away. But his case often sounds too good to be true-and not everyone will like the future world he describes. - William Diebold, Jr., Foreign Affairs
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity
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