Today’s Battlegrounds

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Francisco Sagasti discuss the lessons of Sagasti's presidency, political and economic trends in Latin America, and his new book, Knowledge is Power, which explores the life and legacy of Sir Francis Bacon.

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Dr. Francisco Sagasti served as interim President of Peru from November 2020 to July 2021 during one of the most turbulent stretches in the country's recent history. An industrial engineer by training, with graduate degrees from Penn State and a PhD in operations research and social systems science from the University of Pennsylvania, Sagasti built a career bridging technocracy, philosophy, and public service — heading the World Bank's Strategic Planning Division, chairing the United Nations Council on Science and Technology, and founding GRADE, one of Peru's leading think tanks. He has taught at Wharton, IE Business School, and the University for Peace, and is the author of more than twenty-five books. Elected to Congress in 2020, Sagasti was serving as chair of its Science, Technology, and Innovation Committee when a constitutional crisis elevated him to the presidency. While serving as president, Sagasti stabilized the government, secured desperately needed COVID-19 vaccines, and orchestrated a peaceful transfer of power following the 2021 presidential elections.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Vladimir Kara-Murza discuss the state of the war in Ukraine, the prospects and perils facing Russia's opposition, the shifting currents of Russian domestic politics, the effort to organize the Russian diaspora into a coherent political force, and prospects of a post-Putin Russia.

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Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian opposition leader, historian, and journalist whose career has placed him at the center of the struggle over Russia's political future for two decades. A protégé of the murdered democratic leader Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza served as deputy leader of the People's Freedom Party in 2012 and helped shape the Magnitsky Act framework, which transformed targeted human-rights sanctions into a global instrument now used by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and Australia. He survived two poisonings, one in 2015 and one in 2017, attributed to Russian security services. Then in 2022, Russian authorities arrested him for publicly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Contrived charges resulted in a twenty-five-year prison sentence in a maximum security prison in Siberia which is the longest sentence imposed on a political prisoner since the fall of the Soviet Union. He was released in 2024 as part of the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War. The same year, Kara-Murza won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary written and published in the Washington Post from his prison cell. He now sits on the newly formed Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces run by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Minister 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.

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Carl-Oskar Bohlin has served as Sweden's Minister for Civil Defence since 2022. Bohlin has been a member of Sweden’s Parliament, the Riksdag, since 2010 and completed law courses at Uppsala University. As Minister for Civil Defence, he plays a central role in strengthening Sweden's resilience against both natural and man-made threats, and holds the distinction of being Sweden's first Minister for Civil Defence since 1947—reflecting the country's renewed and urgent emphasis on comprehensive national security. 

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Ine Eriksen Søreide discuss the future of U.S.–Norway cooperation in the High North, Russia’s threat across the Arctic and North Atlantic, and what it will take for Norway to protect critical infrastructure and preserve democratic resilience in this more dangerous European security environment.

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Ine Eriksen Søreide is the Leader of the Conservative Party of Norway. Ms. Søreide served as Foreign Minister from 2017 to 2021 and as Defence Minister from 2013 to 2017. She has represented her party in the Storting, Norway’s national parliament, since 2001. She now leads Norway’s principal center-right opposition as Russia continues its war on Ukraine and is conducting a ‘shadow war’ against Europe of sabotage, intimidation, and subversion.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Haider al-Abadi discuss the future of US–Iraq relations as the new Prime Minister al-Zaidi and his government endeavor to strengthen Iraqi sovereignty, fight corruption, improve security, recover from a regional war, and diversify its economy.

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Dr. Haider al-Abadi is the former Prime Minister of Iraq. Born in Baghdad in 1952, he earned a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester and spent twenty-seven years in exile in the United Kingdom, during which Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime executed two of his brothers. He led the Dawa Party’s opposition from abroad and returned to Iraq in 2003, serving as minister of communications and first deputy speaker of parliament. As prime minister from 2014 to 2018, he served as commander-in-chief during the campaign that defeated ISIS, also known as Daesh, and restored Iraqi sovereignty over the territory the group had seized.

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. 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.

On the 100th episode of Today's Battlegrounds, join Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Hoover Senior Fellow, H.R. McMaster, as they discuss how Singapore is charting its own strategy amid great-power competition, the future of the U.S.–Singapore strategic partnership in advancing regional security, and how the United States and its partners can preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific. 

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Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan has served as Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2015 and is one of the Indo-Pacific’s longest-serving chief diplomats. As Foreign Minister, Dr. Balakrishnan chaired the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in 2018, oversaw Singapore’s role as host of the Trump–Kim summit, and helped facilitate the negotiations that culminated in the Paris Climate Agreement. He has become one of the clearest voices explaining how small states can preserve their sovereignty amid intensifying competition between major powers. Before entering politics, Dr. Balakrishnan practiced as an ophthalmologist, leading the Singapore National Eye Centre as Medical Director and Singapore General Hospital as chief executive.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Radosław Sikorski discuss the future of NATO deterrence on the alliance’s eastern flank, the U.S.–Poland strategic partnership’s role in securing Europe, and what a successful outcome in Ukraine would mean for European security and the defense of democratic nations.

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Radosław Sikorski is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland. Minister Sikorski earlier served as Speaker of the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, from 2014 to 2015, as Foreign Minister from 2007 to 2014, and as Minister of Defence from 2005 to 2007. As Foreign Minister, he launched the European Union’s Eastern Partnership and led the EU mission to Kyiv that negotiated an end to violence during the Maidan protests. Before entering politics, he reported as a war correspondent from Afghanistan and Angola, studied at Oxford, and held fellowships at the American Enterprise Institute and Harvard.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Shigeru Kitamura discuss Japan’s transformation into a leader in economic statecraft, how democratic nations can secure strategic autonomy in critical technologies and supply chains, and the future of US-Japan cooperation in confronting coercion, cyber threats, and growing competition in the Indo-Pacific.

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Shigeru Kitamura is the former Secretary General of Japan’s National Security Secretariat and Japan’s National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. Earlier in his career, he held senior positions in Japan’s intelligence and law enforcement communities, including Director of Cabinet Intelligence and Executive Secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Following his government service, he helped draft Japan’s Economic Security Promotion Act, which established economic resilience and technological protection as central elements of national strategy. Kitamura joined the National Police Agency in 1980 after graduating from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law. He is the author of major works on intelligence and economic security and remains an influential voice on statecraft, technology, and national power.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Iván Duque Márquez discuss the implications of Colombia’s runoff election, the threats associated with narcotics and transnational crime, and how the United States and Colombia can strengthen security and confidence in democratic institutions.

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Iván Duque Márquez was the 34th President of the Republic of Colombia. President Duque served from 2018 to 2022 after a career that combined public service, economic policy, and international development. Before entering the presidency, he worked for more than a decade at the Inter-American Development Bank and later served in Colombia’s Senate. During his administration, he emphasized security, counter-narcotics, economic growth, and democratic governance. He gained international recognition for granting legal protection to nearly two million Venezuelan migrants fleeing authoritarian rule and economic collapse. Since leaving office, President Duque has continued his work as a scholar and public policy leader through fellowships at major universities and the establishment of the Iván Duque Center for Prosperity and Freedom, making him one of the most influential voices on democratic resilience and hemispheric security.

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. 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.

In this episode of Today's Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Kyriakos Mitsotakis discuss Greece’s economic resurgence, the country’s expanding role in international security, and the future of US-Greek cooperation.

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis serves as Prime Minister of Greece and leader of the center-right New Democracy party. Prime Minister Mitsotakis earned degrees from Harvard and Stanford and worked in the private sector before entering public service in 2004 as a member of the Greek parliament. Since taking office in 2019, he has overseen Greece’s recovery from the sovereign debt crisis and guided reforms that restored economic growth and investor confidence.

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. 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.