Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

From Lt. General H.R. McMaster, former National Security Advisor during Trump’s administration, a bold assessment of the most critical foreign policy and national security challenges of our age. There has been a shift in power since the end of the Cold War. In Battlegrounds, bestselling author, commander, scholar and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster examines the rising strength of Russia and China, the threat from hostile states Iran and North Korea, the complex battlegrounds in South Asia and the Middle East, and the new arenas of international competition – space, cyberspace and emerging technology. How can foreign policy, which has across multiple administrations proved itself outdated, misconceived, inconsistent and poorly implemented, be transformed to face the challenges of today? How can Western countries like America and the UK stay relevant, secure and humane? How can we abandon what McMaster calls ‘Strategic Narcissism’ in favour of ‘Strategic Empathy’ – an approach that relies on understanding other nations’ motivations and ideologies? A groundbreaking reassessment of international security and survival, McMaster gives vital insight to life inside the most powerful office and military force in the world, and makes bold arguments for how to achieve a safer, more peaceful future.

About the Author :
H. R. McMaster was the 26th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. He is author of the award-winning book, Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. He 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, and the New York Times. McMaster 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.

Review :
‘Indispensable… Battlegrounds provides a comprehensive and expert review of the strategic threats the US faced when the author was in the White House – not only the Chinese challenge but also Russia’s troublemaking everywhere from Syria to cyberspace, and the perennial North Korean and Iranian menaces’ TLS Praise for H.R. McMaster’s Dereliction of Duty ‘A stunning book: eloquent and highly effective. The word noble would not be going too far.’ Paul Fussell, author of The Great War & Modern Memory ‘Well-written and full of enlightening new details … Significantly adds to the historical record of a great national failure.’ Arnold R. Isaacs, Washington Post ‘Carefully researched and vividly narrated, H.R. McMaster's book adds a new and disturbing dimension to an understanding of the decisions that propelled us into the Vietnam war. It should be read by anyone interested in the origins of one of the great tragedies in American history.’ Stanley Karnow, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Vietnam: A History ‘A book to boggle your mind with new revelations of ineptness, duplicity, and arrogance amongst the senior-most officials of the United States … McMaster pastes all the puzzle pieces together to reveal a plot Shakespearean in its proportions … McMaster's scholarship and presentation is exemplary. The author's arguments are coherent and convincing and important to the historical record.’ Peter Arnett, The Washington Monthly ‘An outstanding example of historical research, interpretation, scholarship, and fair-minded analysis.’ Donald Kagan, author of On the Origins of War