President Donald Trump has picked Lt. Gen. Herbert Raymond McMaster to replace Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.
Michael Flynn was fired after just three weeks and three days in the job.
H.R. McMaster served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he worked on a government anti-corruption drive.
President Trump’s first choice, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, turned down the role, citing “personal reasons”.
Donald Trump has praised H.R. McMaster as “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience” who is “highly respected by everybody in the military”.
H.R. McMaster does not appear to have close ties to Moscow, and was recently commissioned to study the ways the US could counter some of Russia’s military advances.
He is no stranger to questioning authority. In a 2014 interview, he said: “The commanders that I’ve worked for, they want frank assessments, they want criticism and feedback.”
Time magazine named H.R. McMaster as one of its 100 most influential people in the world in 2014, saying he “might be the 21st Century Army’s pre-eminent warrior-thinker”.
He criticized the US military’s involvement in the Vietnam War in his book Dereliction of Duty.
H.R. McMaster has a PhD in US history from the University of North Carolina.
He has said it is “a privilege… to be able to continue serving our nation” and that he looks forward to joining the national security team.
The role involves serving as an independent adviser to the president on issues of national security and foreign policy.
It is one of the most senior roles in the US government. Observers say the role’s influence varies from administration to administration, but the adviser is seen as one of the president’s key confidantes.
The adviser attends the National Security Council, and may act as a broker between different government departments.
The role is not subject to US Senate confirmation.
