Sean McFate & Gen. Stanley McChrystal

SEAN, WHEN YOU CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK ABOUT THE CHANGED FACE OF WARFARE, WAS IT INEVITABLE YOU WOULD GET HIM TO WRITE THE FORWARD AND WHY?

IT WAS INEVITABLE I WOULD ASK HIM TO.

HE SAID YES.

HE WAS MY MENTOR, A GREAT LEADER.

FOR THE LAST 25 YEARS, I'VE ALWAYS ASKED MYSELF, IF HE WAS IN MY POSITION, WHAT WOULD HE DO OR SAY.

HIS ACUMEN ABOUT THE FUTURE OF WAR INSPIRED ME MANY WAYS ON WHAT WE THINK ABOUT WARFARE.

LET ME ASK YOU, GENERAL McCHRYSTAL, WHAT IS IT YOU SAY MOST OF YOUR TIME IN THE FIELD COINCIDED AND NOW FOR SURE WITH WAR CHANGING ITS FACE DRAMATICALLY.ERY, VERY DIFFERENN WHAT WE SAW, LET'S SAY THE LAST BIG GROUND WAR, WHICH WAS WORLD WAR II. THAT'S RIGHT.

I ENTERED THE MILITARY, LEFT WEST POINT IN '76.

IT WAS REALLY A WORLD II CONSTRUCT AND MIND-SET EVEN THOUGH KOREA AND VIETNAM IN THE INTERIM.WE WERE A BIT IN DENIALD TURNED TOWARD WAR IN EUROPE AGAIN.

THE REALITY IS WHAT WE'VE CARRIED FORWARD WITH IS EXACTLY THAT.

MOST OF THE CULTURAL PULLS DURING MY CAREER WERE BACK TO BIG UNIT OPERATIONS, HIGH TECHNOLOGY EQUIPMENT, THINGS LIKE THAT.

YET WHAT I RAN INTO IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN BELIED THAT.

IT REINFORCED THE IDEA NOT ONLY GOING INTO COUNTER-INSURGENCY AND COUNTER-TERRORISM BUT EVEN DIFFERENT IN AN INFORMATION AGE WHICH SEAN CAPTURES SO PERFECTLY IN THIS BOOK.

IT'S THIS CHAOS WE'VE GOT TO LEARN HOW TO OPERATE IN.

SEAN, THE SUBTITLE OF YOUR BOOK IS 'VICTORY IN THE AGE OF DURABLE DISORDER.'

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES OF DURABLE DISORDER.

WE LIVE IN AN ERA WHERE ENTROPEY IS THE NORM.

POWERFUL NATION STATES THE WAY WE WERE TAUGHT IN GRAMMAR SCHOOL, WAR IS RUN -- GLOBAL ORDER IS RUN OTHER WAYS.

WAYS WE'VE SEEN BEFORE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

THE IDEA IS WE SHOULD NOT GO AROUND AND TRY TO REBUILD A LIBERAL WORLD ORDER AS IT SEEMED TO BE IN THE 1950s.

THAT'S HUMPTY DUMPTY.

THAT'S OVER.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS ADAPT TO THE WAY THE NEW SYSTEM WORKS AND WAR CHANGES WITH IT.

WAR HAS MOVED ON BUT WE HAVE THAT'S WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK.

YOU ALSO SAY, AND IT'S QUITE TROUBLING FROM A WESTERN PERSPECTIVE, SINCE WE ARE IN THE WEST HERE, THE WEST HAS FORGOTTEN HOW TO WIN WARS.

WHY ARE WESTERN POWERS SEEMINGLY LOSING TO INFERIOR LOOSELY ALIGNED MILITANTS, INSURGENTS, TERRORISTS, HOWEVER YOU WANT TO DESCRIBE THE CURRENT ENEMY.