Thoughts on National Security with Brigadier General Mark Holler

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Our speaker on April 22nd was retired Brigadier General Mark Holler. A club member, General Holler brings a wealth of insight and experience to the topic of National Security Policy.

He began his talk by listing the key national security influences – Politics, Policy and Strategy.

In the political domain, our past approaches to the world have been defined by the theories of realism (enduring competition among self interested states), liberalism (relations governed by international law and the sovereign equality of states) and institutionalism (a dependence on enduring international organizations that establish rules for states to follow).

Although some would argue that Reagan and Nixon (with Kissinger) were realists, Mark argues that Donald Trump is the first true realist we have had as President since World War II. That rings true as nothing is more realist than “America First”.

Mark describes the Trump foreign policy as two objectives: End America’s decline; and Advance US Supremacy for national security.

We as a nation are in decline in so many areas, such as open borders, excessive national debt, DEI, military readiness, trade imbalances and supply chain dependencies, and the Trump agenda is addressing them all by using all the levers of national power. These include Diplomatic (peace talks, bilateral meetings with other leaders), Information (end running the legacy media with Truth Social, X, YouTube, Rumble), Military (major improvements in recruiting, judicious but active use), and Economic (sanctions, tariffs, energy dominance, DOGE).

Overall, Mark was optimistic for the future.

In the Q&A session, he was asked about triggering China (steps to head off a ran at Taiwan), Russia (2nd best army in Ukraine, not the world), military action against Iran (yes, probably) and our vulnerability to hypersonic weapons (classified but we have them too).