National Security

Lessons From The Hoover Policy Boot Camp

Contributing Scholar: H. R. McMaster

Strategic Competence

In an age where authoritarian powers actively coordinate their aggression, the United States must develop specific and strategic plans of action to prevent conflict and restore credible deterrence and hard power.

Up Next Iran & Terrorism

Change and Continuity in War

Comment

Published February 21, 2025

In this Q&A session, Gen. HR McMaster lays out how American strategic thinking has often been plagued by false assumptions. Americans tend to look forward – towards change – incorrectly predicting future conflicts will be different while ignoring the continuities of war across history. Similarly, politicians and policymakers often hold optimistic and inaccurate assumptions about our adversaries and their intentions, from Ho Chi Minh to Vladmir Putin, rather than taking them at their word. To successfully address these and other failures, the United States must first see adversaries as they are, not as we wish them to be, and then simultaneously maintain the will and capability to project sustained power rather than seek technological shortcuts or easy exits.

H.R. McMaster is a retired Lietenant General in the United States Army, former National Security Advisor, and the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the host of Battlegrounds: Vital Perspectives on Today’s Challenges and is a regular on GoodFellows, both produced by the Hoover Institution.

Check out more from H.R. McMaster:

Watch or listen to H.R. McMaster's discussion with Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines, Gilberto Teodoro on Battlegrounds here.
Watch or listen to H.R. McMaster on Goodfellows "Vibe Shifts: Enter Trump, Exit Biden, the Politics of Fires, “Silly Walking and Flying Eagles” here.
Watch H.R. McMaster's interview on BBC Newsnight with Andrew Marr here.

The opinions expressed in this video are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. © 2025 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.