Army regulations do NOT permit active duty officers to work and be paid for it for other organizations. However, senior officers are assigned by the Department of Defense to major “think tanks” as part of their continuing education and learning. Thus the DoD decided to assign LTG McMaster, when he was a full colonel he was assigned to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, as a Senior Research Associate with a mandate described as “conduct[ing] research to identify opportunities for improved multi-national cooperation and political-military integration in the areas of counterinsurgency, counter-terrorism, and state building”, and to devise “better tactics to battle terrorism.”
He was also he was a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution (a conservative organization) and was a national security affairs fellow from 2002 to 2003. These are honorary position and as a serving officer he would NOT have been paid.
Thus blame the DoD for assigning him to the International Institute for Strategic Studies during George W. Bush’s presidency.
Yes but why was he kept on there for so many years? That is the truly troubling aspect here.