H.R. McMaster in conversation with Staffan de Mistura, Former Special UN Envoy to Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Syria on Wednesday, January 6th at 9:00am PT. In this sixth episode of Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and Staffan de Mistura discuss the role of international organizations in promoting peace and improving security as well as limitations and disappointments associated with collective action. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Staffan de Mistura served as Special Envoy for Syria of the United Nations Secretary-General from July 2014 to December 2018. Prior to this assignment he was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq and then in Afghanistan, as well as Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister. During a career of over four decades with United Nations agencies, he served in numerous conflict zones. He held senior political and humanitarian assignments in Lebanon and Iraq, and served as Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme. 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 26th 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. ABOUT THE SERIES Battlegrounds provides a needed forum with leaders from key countries to share their assessment of problem sets and opportunities that have implications for U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy. Each episode features H.R. McMaster in a one-on-one conversation with a senior foreign government leader to allow Americans and partners abroad to understand how the past produced the present and how we might work together to secure a peaceful and prosperous future. “Listening and learning from those who have deep knowledge of our most crucial challenges is the first step in crafting the policies we need to secure peace and prosperity for future generations.” For more information, visit: https://www.hoover.org/battlegrounds_perspectives. Pick up a copy of "Battlegrounds: The Fight To Defend The Free World," by H.R. McMaster here - https://www.hoover.org/research/battlegrounds-fight-defend-free-world.