Articles
The Waiting Game In Gaza
Amid a pause in combat, any progress will depend on what path the region takes.
August 25, 2026
In this episode of Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Peter Bergen discuss the history and evolution of jihadist terrorist groups, their objectives, and the implications for international security.
H.R. McMaster in conversation with Peter Bergen on Tuesday, September 7 at 9:00am PT.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Peter Bergen is a journalist; Documentary Producer; CNN National Security Analyst; Vice president for Global studies & Fellow at New America; and Author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the Japan Chair at the Hudson Institute. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He was the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. 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 before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018.
Battlegrounds provides a needed forum with leaders from key countries to share their assessment of problem sets and opportunities that have implications for U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy. Each episode features H.R. McMaster in a one-on-one conversation with a senior foreign government leader to allow Americans and partners abroad to understand how the past produced the present and how we might work together to secure a peaceful and prosperous future. “Listening and learning from those who have deep knowledge of our most crucial challenges is the first step in crafting the policies we need to secure peace and prosperity for future generations.”
Articles
Amid a pause in combat, any progress will depend on what path the region takes.
August 25, 2026
Videos
H.R. McMaster and Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin discuss Sweden's approach to civil defense, Nordic-Baltic security cooperation, and how Sweden is strengthening NATO to improve deterrence in the High North.
August 26, 2026
Articles
Money, power and security are intimately connected. For extended periods, the world’s financial center has been concentrated in one country, one city, one currency, providing in effect a code of conduct, whose most effective modern variants have been the nineteenth-century gold standard (1873–1914), the Bretton Woods system (1945–1971), and the international system around the so-called Washington Consensus (1980–2008). Each of these orders eventually frayed, and alternatives needed to be constructed. Concentration around a financial center yields powerful network advantages, but the historical record warns against treating any such arrangement as permanent. The emergence of rival centers has repeatedly been associated with heightened conflict, war, and destruction.
August 24, 2026