H.R. McMaster was the 25th Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. H.R. is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Distinguished University Fellow at Arizona State University, and lecturer at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

H.R. was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984. He holds a PhD 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. He also served overseas as advisor to the most senior commanders in the Middle East. From 2014 to 2017 McMaster designed the future Army as Director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, US Army Training and Doctrine Command. As Commanding General, Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, he oversaw all training and education for the Army’s infantry, armor, and cavalry force.

H.R. led important strategic assessments including the revision of Iraq strategy during the ‘surge’ of 2007 and efforts to develop security forces and governmental institutions in post-war Iraq. In 2009-2010 he led an assessment and planning effort to develop a comprehensive strategy for the greater Middle East.

McMaster was as an assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy from 1994 to 1996 where he taught undergraduate courses in military history and history of the Korean and Vietnam Wars as well as a graduate course on the history of military leadership for officers enrolled in the Columbia University MBA program. He teaches graduate courses at Stanford on contemporary challenges to international security and building strategic competence.

His award-winning book, Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam, is a New York Times bestseller. Reviewers describe his most recent bestseller, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, as “indispensable” and “an illuminating source of geopolitical insight.” H.R. has published scores of essays, articles, and book reviews on leadership, history, and the future of warfare in many publications including Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New Republic and The New York Times. He was a contributing editor for Survival: Global Politics and Strategy from 2010-2017. Currently, he hosts the Hoover Institution interview series Battlegrounds: International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges and Opportunities and is a regular on the Hoover Institution broadcast series Goodfellows.

He is a distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy. His military awards include the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster, and the Purple Heart.