Battlegrounds
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November 9, 2017. Beijing, China. Chinese children greet President Trump and Chairman Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People. The children were cued to jump up and down too early and were exhausted by the time the leaders arrived. Official White House Photograph by Shealah Craighead
Subi Reef in the South China Sea was militarized by China in 2018 in an attempt to exert Chinese power. China is building and militarizing islands to gain exclusive control of the South China Sea. DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d via Getty
September 11, 2018. Vladivostok, Russia. At the Eastern Economic Forum, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meet to discuss their comprehensive strategic partnership. Both countries are undermining the U.S. position in the world but are likely to be wary partners as China’s relative power grows economically and militarily. Sergei Bobylev/TASS News Agency Pool Photo via AP
October 9, 2019. Shanghai, China. A Chinese worker takes down NBA advertising after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of the prodemocracy Hong Kong demonstrators. It was a classic example of China’s coercion of corporations to adhere to the Communist party’s worldview. Bloomberg/Getty
South Asia
Mujahedeen fighters in the 1980s. Associated Press
October 20, 2016. Wagah Border Post, India-Pakistan border. Pakistan’s use of terrorist organizations as an arm of its foreign policy is connected to its hostility to India and its fears of Pashtun nationalism. Arif Ali/Getty
June 26, 2017. Washington, DC. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and President Trump embrace in an expression of a deepening partnership. NurPhoto/Getty
November 2019. U.S. general Austin Scott Miller, commander of Resolute Support Mission, and Afghanistan defense minister Asadullah Khalid meet with local leaders of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and survey gains made against ISIS-K in southern Nangarhar. Afghan security forces bear the brunt of the fights against ISIS-K, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban. Joe Byerly
December 21, 2019. New Delhi, India. Students of Jamia Millia Islamia university protest against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The law, and the violence that followed, raised the specter of disastrous sectarian conflict in the world’s largest democracy. AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
The Middle East
March 14, 2017. Washington, DC. President Trump walks with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the then–deputy crown prince and minister of defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the White House. Rising hopes concerning MBS’s reform initiatives were dashed after several incidents, including the murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. Official White House Photograph by Shealah Craighead
September 2005. Command Sgt. Maj. William Burns welcomes then-parliamentarian Haider al-Abadi to Tal Afar. The then-mayor of Tal Afar, Najim Abed Abdullah al-Jibouri, is to Burns’s left. The author is in the background. Donald Sparks
December 15, 2011. Baghdad, Iraq. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta speaks during the ceremony marking the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq. General Lloyd Austin sits on the far right, the last American commander in Iraq. The precipitous withdrawal of our troops abruptly ended a strategy that was working, contributed to a return of large-scale sectarian violence, and paved the way for the rise of ISIS. Department of Defense
March 20, 2017. Washington, DC. President Trump and Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi participate in a bilateral meeting, in the Cabinet Room of the White House. I had briefed the president on Abadi’s genuine efforts to mediate between Iraq’s fractious communities. Official White House photograph by Benjamin Applebaum
December 31, 2019. Baghdad, Iraq. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (center) and Qais al-Khazali (left) attend the funeral procession of a Hashd al-Shaabi militiaman who was killed by U.S. airstrikes in the Qaim district. Muhandis and Khazali led Iranian proxy forces that had directly attacked American soldiers for many years. Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters Pictures
Iran
October 23, 1983. Beirut, Lebanon. The aftermath of the terrorist bombing in Beirut that killed 241 service members. It was a spectacular beginning to a nearly four-decade-long series of attacks against American facilities and citizens. Staff Sgt. Randy Gaddo/U.S. Marine Corps
June 25, 1996. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Police survey the site of the Hezbollah-orchestrated Khobar Towers bombing that killed nineteen U.S. Air Force personnel. Department of Defense. Note: The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.
June 2019. Gulf of Oman. An oil tanker burns just fourteen nautical miles off Iran’s coast. Iran had clearly chosen to take aggressive action in response to tightening sanctions and increased pressure on their leadership. AP Photo/ISNA, File
December 31, 2019. Baghdad, Iraq. Iranian-backed protesters attacked and vandalized the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Picture Alliance/Getty
North Korea
June 14, 2017. Washington, DC. The author at his home with National Security Council Senior Director for Asia Matt Pottinger and South Korea’s director of the National Security Office Chung Eui-yong. Photograph by Park Jang-ho
January 30, 2018. Washington, DC. Cindy and Fred Warmbier receive a standing ovation at the State of the Union address. Their son Otto died of severe brain damage inflicted on him during his seventeen-month-long imprisonment in North Korea for attempting to steal a propaganda poster. White House
September 15, 2000. Sydney, Australia. Six months after the first inter-Korean summit, North Korea and South Korea march together under the same flag at the opening ceremony of 2000 Sydney Olympics. It was one of many failed attempts to moderate North Korean behavior and bring about political and economic reform by asking Pyongyang to participate in sporting and other cultural events. Jung Yeon-Je/Getty
February 8, 2018. Pyongyang, North Korea. Hwasong-12 ballistic missiles at a military parade marking the seventieth anniversary of the Korean People’s Army. These missiles could reportedly reach the shores of Alaska. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File
June 30, 2019. Military demarcation line, demilitarized zone, near Panmunjom, South Korea. President Trump invites Kim Jung Un to a last-minute meeting in an effort to reinvigorate the flagging process of denuclearization talks. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
May 9, 2018. Dalian, China. Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un meets with Chairman Xi Jinping. The United States has a North Korea strategy, and China has a United States strategy. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File
Arenas
A technician checks an antenna for the 5G mobile network service on the rooftop of a building in Seoul. 5G is designed to permit much faster transmission of data than present day 3G and 4G technologies. Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images
October 1, 2019. Beijing, China. China reveals its hypersonic glide vehicle at a parade marking the seventieth anniversary of the regime’s founding. Greg Baker/Getty
November 8, 2011. Lubmin, Germany. Officials celebrate Nord Stream 2, the pipeline that vastly increased Europe’s dependence on Russian energy. Russia has a track record of using energy dependence for coercive purposes. Sean Gallup/Getty
February 2008. Residents of the Govindpuri slum scramble to receive their daily supply of fresh water during an acute shortage. The challenges facing India demonstrate that the problems of climate change, environmental degradation, energy resources, and water and food security are all interconnected. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty
December 12, 2015. Paris, France. The Paris Agreement to combat climate change is adopted with no objection and finalized. Delegates joined in victory as French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, president of the COP21 Climate Change Conference, bangs down the gavel. But the agreement may have generated a false sense of security. U.S. Department of State
About the Author
H. R. MCMASTER is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Stanford University. He is also the Susan
and Bernard Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He serves as chairman of the advisory board of the Center for Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Japan Chair at the Hudson Institute. A native of Philadelphia, H.R. graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1984. He served as a U.S. Army officer for thirty-four years and retired as a lieutenant general in 2018. He remained on active duty while serving as the twenty-sixth assistant to the president for national security affairs. He taught history at West Point and holds a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Copyright
BATTLEGROUNDS. Copyright © 2020 by H. R. McMaster. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Cover photograph by Ray Kachatorian
Maps © 2020 by Springer Cartographics LLC
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-289948-4
Version 05292020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-289946-0
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* In the 2010 Census, the Agriculture Department estimated that 11.5 million poor Americans (4.1 percent of the U.S. population) lived in food deserts.