Published 11/11/2025 - The importance of strategic competence, empathy, confidence, and learning from U.S. history was highlighted in H.R. McMaster's talk on national security and diplomacy at the Ford School. For the 7th annual Arthur Vandenberg Lecture, titled Cascading crises and prospects for peace, McMaster joined the Ford School's Javed Ali to reflect on his experience in the U.S. Army for 24 years, rising to the role of lieutenant general and serving as the country's 25th national security advisor. McMaster offered his strategic vision on various diplomatic matters while also inspiring young professionals seeking profound and fulfilling careers.

McMaster emphasized a theme of "strategic competence" throughout the conversation, which is especially important for this moment in history. "I think we are in a very consequential time, a time of increasing danger. And I'd like to talk to you about that… and how this moment in time requires a high degree of strategic competence, but also talk with you about my concern that competence has eroded over time and what we might do to restore it."

He outlined the elements of strategic competence that should be considered when making decisions in military roles. The first element McMaster put forth was to "take more time to think about the nature of the challenges we're facing… The second key lesson was to have clear goals and objectives." The third key is "it's very important to always give the president multiple options," and "finally, I would endeavor to try to insulate the development of those options from partisan political considerations."

The loss of strategic competence has also led to a loss of confidence, McMaster argued. "You see such an impulse these days toward just retrenchment, disengagement," which reflects a loss of confidence… in our ability to achieve favorable outcomes for our own citizens, for citizens of the free world, by sustained diplomatic, military, [and] other economic engagement in the world. So what do we do to regain our confidence? The first step is to understand the nature of the challenge we're facing," he said.

In recent decades, rather than expressing strategic competence, McMaster asserted that U.S. leadership exhibited "strategic narcissism," which was "the tendency to find the world only in relation to us and assume that what we do or choose not to do, by the way, is decisive toward achieving a favorable outcome. And what we need is a strong dose of… strategic empathy, the ability to view these complex challenges from the perspective of the other, especially our rivals, our adversaries, and our enemies."

McMaster urged that moving forward, U.S. diplomatic and military decisions should "pay particular attention to the emotions, the aspirations, the ideologies that drive and can and constrain the other."

He applied this strategic vision to challenging situations in North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and Gaza.

In the context of the loss of competence and confidence, he said U.S. leaders should have more confidence in diplomatic actions, especially when engaging with authoritarian countries. "We should be more confident. Now, these authoritarian regimes, they look really strong from the outside. They look great on parade, you know, but they're brittle… While we look weak from the outside, our democracies are quite resilient. We have the capacity for self-improvement and self-correction short of revolution, because we have a say in how we're governed. Right? That's not the case for these authoritarian regimes," he said, asserting that U.S. democracy is stronger and more resilient than it is often presented.

Finally, McMaster offered words of encouragement to the Ford School audience. As students prepare to enter the workforce, McMaster provided advice for them to keep in mind. He gave key questions one should ask themselves as they pursue careers: "Just ask yourself three questions. Is this job you're pursuing, whatever it is, a mission you care about? Will you have the degree of responsibility that will allow you to make the difference you want to make? And are these people you want to spend time with?" He also noted that a career isn't something to plan, but rather something to explore. He added, "Do the best job you can and all sorts of doors will open that you could never have anticipated."

You can watch the full conversation here.