H. R. McMaster: How He Sees China, and the World

“And so I think we have to resist the tendency to try to define a new administration’s foreign policy mainly as an opposition to the administration that came before it.”

On December 29th, Thomas Koenig was joined by General H. R. McMaster to discuss his latest book, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World. General H. R. McMaster graduated from the United States Military Academy and served as an officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant general. He served in the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He later became a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and served as a National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump from February, 2017 to April, 2018. In this discussion with Mr. Koenig, General McMaster explains his views on what should be a bipartisan reckoning with the dangers of an ascendant China, why he believes that the concept of “strategic empathy” ought to be the future of the United States’ foreign policy, and his hopes for President-elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy strategy.

A video of the conversation is available on YouTube.

Hi, I’m Tom Koenig, and I’m joined today by former National Security Adviser General H. R. McMaster. General, thanks so much for joining us.

Hey, Tom. Thanks for having me.

So we’re here today to discuss your new book, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, and I want to begin by asking why you decided to write this book in particular. You served as President Trump’s National Security Advisor from February 2017 to April 2018. But you didn’t write a tell-all book about White House intrigue. Many have, and many wanted you to, but you didn’t. Why?

Tom, I’ve been disappointed about the degree to which partisan politics has us pitted against each other. And, as we’re at each others’ throats, the challenges that we’re facing aren’t going to go away. Having been on the receiving end of plans and policies and strategies developed in Washington in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, I thought it was important for me as National Security advisor to try to address what I saw as the disconnect between fantasy in Washington and reality on the ground. And I endeavored to do that as National Security advisor, but what I hope to do with the book is to contribute to a deeper and a fuller understanding of the challenges we face as a way to bring people together for meaningful discussions and a common understanding of what we have to do to build a better future for generations to come. That’s what I hope the book will do—is help contribute to a reversal of this polarization that we see at least in the area of foreign policy.