More than 125 people gathered Thursday afternoon in the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Auditorium for the seventh annual Arthur Vandenberg Lecture. Established in 2017 to honor former Michigan Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, this year’s lecture featured Javed Ali, associate professor of practice at the Ford School for Public Policy, and H.R. McMaster, who served as the 25th U.S. National Security Agency advisor in President Donald Trump’s first administration. Ali and McMaster discussed the role of the United States in global conflict and prospects of peace.
McMaster began the talk by acknowledging the role of strategic competence in fighting against foreign agencies. McMaster said he believes there is a rise in an “axis of aggressors” consisting of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
“We’re facing a very dangerous world in which we have seen a coalescence of what I would call an axis of aggressors,” McMaster said. “What (the countries) share is a desire to tear down the existing rules of international discourse, whether economic or security or heightened financial rights, and replace them with a new set of rules that are sympathetic to their authoritarian forms of government.”
McMaster continued, saying he worries the current political climate has led to a loss of confidence in the government’s ability to provide for U.S. citizens.
“I think that’s why you see an impulse these days toward just retrenchment, disengagement and a loss of competence,” McMaster said. “I think it has brought about a loss of confidence, 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.”
Next, McMaster said strategic empathy — the ability to view these complex challenges from the opposing perspective — is driven by a fear of losing control. McMaster said this is especially prevalent in the Chinese Communist Party.
“What’s driving that party, primarily, is fear — the party’s fear of losing control,” McMaster said. “The Chinese Communist Party leadership tries to appear strong. I believe this is some real insecurity, because they fear their own people more than they fear anything.”
McMaster said he believes China is preparing for nuclear war with the United States, in particular through its ties to Russia.
“I also believe (China is) preparing a first strike with nuclear capability, which they would use to keep us at bay while they do whatever they want in the Indo, Pacific and beyond,” McMaster said. “Part of China’s approach is this relationship with Russia. I think you could argue that China’s fighting a proxy war against Europe and the United States by using the Russians at this stage.”
McMaster said he believes democracies are stronger than authoritarian regimes, despite their outward appearance.
“These authoritarian regimes, they look really strong from the outside,” McMaster said. “They look great, but they’re brittle. Our democracies — especially the vitriolic nature of our political discourse, the action over the attentive skill, expansion of presidential authority and the effect on institutions — all of that ugliness is on display for us. And that’s good, because while we look weak from the outside, our democracies are quite resilient.”
In response to a question about the future of perception of the U.S. amid its internal political unrest, McMaster said the goal of foreign opponents is to divide the American people.
“Even though they have these profound weaknesses that I mentioned, they see us as divided, decadent and weak as a result, and they try to exacerbate those divisions,” McMaster said. “For example, Russia, in its campaign of cognitive warfare against us, doesn’t really care who wins our elections, as long as large numbers of Americans doubt the legitimacy of the result. What we have, across the political spectrum, are politicians who have been willing to compromise our confidence in our institutions to score partisan political points.”
McMaster ended his lecture by encouraging both political parties to maintain the separation between political disagreements and military officials.
“Generals and admirals should not cross the line between advice and advocacy, because nobody elects generals,” McMaster said. “It’s really important to keep that bold line in place between the military and partisan politics.”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA sophomore Frances Walewski said she believes the talk to be especially important within the current global political climate.
“I thought the talk was really timely because of all the political unrest that’s going on around the world,” Walewski said. “I thought it was really interesting how McMaster used his experiences, both in the army and his academic experience, to inform his decisions when he was working in the White House.”
Daily Staff Reporters Gia Verma and Sarah Palushi can be reached at giaverma@umich.edu and sarpal@umich.edu.
