The Hoover Institution's Today's Battlegrounds with H.R. McMaster has reached its 100th episode, marking a major milestone for a series devoted to thoughtful conversations about the challenges shaping global security, freedom, and prosperity. Grounded in the principle of strategic empathy—the effort to understand how allies, adversaries, and partners perceive the world and make decisions—the series has become a leading forum for discussions on the ideas, history, and leadership shaping today's strategic environment.
For the milestone episode, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster sits down with Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, to discuss how Singapore is charting its own course amid intensifying competition between the United States and China. Their conversation examines the future of the US–Singapore strategic partnership, opportunities to advance regional security, and how the United States and its partners can preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Launched in September 2020, the series began with a conversation between McMaster and then–Afghan foreign minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar about Afghanistan and what was at stake in peace negotiations during America's longest war, less than a year before the country's fall to the Taliban. Since then, Today's Battlegrounds has provided a forum for presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, military leaders, diplomats, scholars, and other influential voices to explain how history has shaped present-day challenges and how nations can work together toward a more peaceful and prosperous future.
“It is a tremendous privilege to host Today's Battlegrounds, a program that allows our audience and me to learn from the perspectives of leaders who are shaping the future of their communities, their nations, and the world,” said McMaster.
Over the course of 100 episodes, McMaster has welcomed an extraordinary roster of global leaders, including the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his Royal Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan, former British prime minister Boris Johnson, Czech president Petr Pavel, Belarusian democratic leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop, former Peruvian president Francisco Sagasti, former Ukrainian prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, and many others representing every major region of the world.
While international affairs remain at the heart of the series, Today's Battlegrounds has also explored the broader qualities of leadership and the enduring ideas that sustain free societies. Episodes have featured Nando Parrado, survivor of the 1972 Andes air disaster that claimed the lives of members of Uruguay's Old Christians Club rugby team, on resilience and leadership in the face of unimaginable adversity; Richie McCaw, former captain of New Zealand's All Blacks and two-time Rugby World Cup champion, on teamwork, discipline, and high-performance leadership; Lt. Col. Bruce Robinson, son of General Roscoe Robinson Jr., the first African American four-star general in US Army history, on his father's legacy and the broader story of African American military service; and Ian Rowe, educator, author, and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, on expanding opportunity, strengthening civil society, and renewing the institutions that underpin self-government. These conversations reflect the series' broader mission of understanding not only the geopolitical battlegrounds abroad, but also the moral, historical, and civic battlegrounds that shape free societies at home.
Each episode of Today’s Battlegrounds invites audiences in the United States and abroad to better understand how the past produced the present and how strategic empathy can foster wiser policy, stronger alliances, and more effective leadership. By listening to leaders with firsthand experience navigating today's most consequential challenges, viewers gain a deeper appreciation for the choices that will shape the future of the international order and the preservation of freedom.
The 100th episode continues that mission by turning to Singapore, a strategically important nation navigating the pressures of great-power rivalry while defending its sovereignty, strengthening its international partnerships, and supporting a stable regional order.
Beyond Today's Battlegrounds 100th episode, the series will remain committed to helping audiences better understand the world's most consequential challenges through informed dialogue, historical perspective, and principled leadership—demonstrating that the first step toward sound strategy is understanding the perspectives, motivations, and aspirations of others.
Watch the 100th episode and explore the complete Today’s Battlegrounds series at Hoover.org.
