Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, American soldier and career officer, served as National Security Advisor during the first administration of President Donald J. Trump.
Michael Mercier | UAH
The Distinguished Lecture Series (DLS) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) recently hosted Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, an American soldier and career officer, on the campus of UAH, a part of The University of Alabama System. McMaster served as National Security Advisor during the first administration of President Donald J. Trump, and his talk provided critical insight on foreign affairs both past and present, particularly with respect to meeting the military, economic and security challenges presented by what the speaker referred to as the axis of aggression, Russia, China and Iran.
The Lieutenant General served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for 34 years before retiring in 2018. He is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Distinguished University Fellow at Arizona State University and a lecturer at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. McMaster has extensive experience leading soldiers and organizations in wartime in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The author of several books on U.S. military and foreign policy, McMaster currently hosts the Hoover Institution podcast series Battlegrounds: Vital Perspectives on Today’s Challenges.
The speaker began his talk by detailing the global ambitions of President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, who McMaster sees as preparing for war, presenting one of the major obstacles to peace and stability around the world. The former Lieutenant General cited as evidence the ramping up of China’s military and strategic capabilities that in his view demonstrate a clear focus on developing a first strike capability aimed in particular at crippling the United States’ ability to respond.
With respect to the potential for an invasion of Taiwan, the speaker didn’t mince words, stating he would set the likelihood of China taking aggressive action against Taiwan in the next five to 10 years at 90 percent. McMasters noted that newly intensified aggressive actions around Taiwan have become the new normal in relations between the two antagonists, and stressed that the U.S. should act proactively when it comes to responding to an invasion of Taiwan, meaning taking whatever steps are necessary now rather than waiting until after a conflict had actually begun.
When McMaster turned his attention to his time within the first Trump administration, he highlighted the need to pivot from seeking to build bridges with Russian President Vladimir Putin to instead relying on a show of determined strength to thwart Russian strategic goals.
The speaker reflected on how President Trump had originally desired a better relationship with Putin in his first term, but asserted that the real provocation for the Russian president was the perception of U.S. weakness. As an example, McMaster blamed the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan for leading directly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which the speaker sees as a fulcrum the Russian president is employing to destabilize the region and ultimately break up Europe.
McMaster voiced his belief that what is most damaging to Putin is a demonstration of so-called “hard” power, highlighting his view that expanding these capabilities is the most important thing the U.S. can do to meet potential Russian aggression. The speaker depicted the necessity of moving quickly to meet these goals, stating that Putin will not stop until he is stopped and indicating wars are not won solely on defensive strategy.
Flipping to transparent competition
McMaster went on to shed light on President Trump’s leadership style and how it has evolved, illuminating the four questions President Trump always asks when seeking advice: What is in it for us? Why do we care? What does it cost? Why can’t somebody else do it? The speaker depicted President Trump as a contrarian who always prefers to be presented with multiple options in any given situation.
The speaker remarked that the current Commander in Chief is less patient in this administration, favoring peace through strength, as well as skepticism of alliances, while surrounding himself with key advisors who clearly understand their roles.
Looking to the future of foreign policy and the innovations required to keep up with adversaries, the speaker stressed the importance of preparing for troubling turns of events before they have occurred.
He cited as an example the previous foreign policy stance toward China as leaning toward cooperation and engagement, on the assumption that China, having been welcomed into the international order, would play by the rules. As China prospered, the prevailing thought at the time was that the nation would liberalize its economy, as well as its form of governance. When these hopes failed to materialize, McMaster explained that the administration delivered a long overdue shift in foreign policy, switching from cooperation to engage with China to transparent competition.
The speaker emphasized just how large a role UAH can play in bolstering this shift in stance. With regards to the competition with the Chinese communist party, McMaster opined that the U.S.’s biggest advantage is the country’s entrepreneurial spirit.
The speaker detailed what he considered a major shift in the characterization of warfare, remarking on how technological advancements, such as autonomous systems and space systems, are now ubiquitous.
With transparency and advancements like precision fire capabilities setting the tone and rendering certain strategies unsustainable, the speaker indicated leaping ahead too quickly might only provide U.S. adversaries the time to catch up, arguing as an example that Chinese hypersonic missiles have been developed with U.S. technology. The goal, McMaster stated, is to do better than China, calling for an arena of innovation where UAH can make a significant difference toward national readiness and additionally lessen U.S. reliance on the foreign supply chain.
McMaster concluded by painting the conflict with the Chinese Communist Party as a multi-dimensional problem, with the highest priority to be tackled framed as a technological competition. The speaker praised the thriving ecosystem for innovation that has been established at UAH that will help to drive future global success, foreign policy strategies and U.S. defense.