mcmaster. lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster. we go back a long way. general mcmaster's career probably known to most of you. i'll just touch on a few of the highlights. a hero of the first gulf war at a battle called 73 easting which made his mark. also made his mark with a dissertation turned into book called "dereliction of duty," which is one of the more important books that has come out about civil-military relations in vietnam. went on to other commands including most notably serving in the iraq war in command of an armored cavalry

mcmaster. lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster. we go back a long way. general mcmaster's career probably known to most of you. i'll just touch on a few of the highlights. a hero of the first gulf war at a battle called 73 easting which made his mark. also made his mark with a dissertation turned into book called "dereliction of duty," which is one of the more important books that has come out about civil-military relations in vietnam. went on to other commands including most notably serving in the iraq war in command of an armored cavalry regiment at the battle of tal afar. continuing on to serve in afghanistan afghanistan. and now h.r., i'm going to butcher your title. so i'll let you give it to me directly. >> it's deputy commander general for training and doctrine command for futures. and then the clunky long title is the army capabilities integration center. >> i'm glad i didn't try to memorize that. >> arcic. >> but what h.r. is really that quite extraordinary combination of thinker and great military leader. there aren't that many in our history.

i have a couple questions i'd like to ask general mcmaster, draw him out on a few subjects. and then i'll moderate a discussion from the floor. so h.r., the army has just produced something called the army operating concept, which i guess you had stewardship of. what is an operating concept, and why does the army need it? >> okay. well, it's a great question, eliot. what a privilege it is to be here with you and at the international institute for strategic studies, an organization which i think makes tremendous contributions to international security and an institution that really benefited me tremendously in my two years in london which turned out to be about four months because i was mainly in iraq but had access to the scholars at the international center for strategic studies, toby dodge, others who really helped us tremendously in understanding how the conflict in iraq had evolved and to help refashion the strategy there in early 2007. so what a privilege it is to be here at the international institute for strategic studies and with you, eliot. though the army operating