H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford  University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer  at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. 

Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned  officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years. He retired as a Lieutenant General in June 2018  after serving as the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. From 2014 to 2017  McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the  deputy commanding general, futures, of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). As  commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, he oversaw all training and  education for the army’s infantry, armor, and cavalry force. He has commanded organizations in  wartime including Commander, Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force—Shafafiyat in Kabul,  Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012; Commander, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006;  and Commander, Eagle Troop, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Operation Desert Storm from 1990 to  1991. McMaster also served overseas as advisor to the most senior commanders in the Middle East,  Iraq, and Afghanistan.  

McMaster holds a PhD in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an  assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy. He is author of the bestselling  books Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson,  Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. His many essays, articles,  and book reviews on leadership, history, and the future of warfare have appeared in The Atlantic,  Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, SurvivalNational Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post,  and the New York Times.  

McMaster is the host of Battlegrounds: International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges and Opportunities and is a regular on Goodfellows. He is a Distinguished University Fellow at Arizona State  University.