After earning her JD, she spent the next several years, variously, as an associate in a San Francisco law firm, working for human rights organizations, and as a travel writer.
In McFate's opinion, during the Cold War, the United States defense establishment developed a very good understanding of the Soviet Union, with the ultimate result of that the US triumphed in that conflict.
On the other hand, she holds that the military and defense establishment has a very poor understanding of the cultures of the Middle East, resulting in such debacles as the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.
[2][5] Over the next several years, McFate worked as a defense consultant for the Rand Corporation, the Office of Naval Research, and the United States Institute of Peace.
The Human Terrain System program was established between August 2005 and July 2006 by the US Army's Foreign Military Studies Office directed at the time by Dr. Jacob Kipp.
[7] McFate is alleged in several magazine articles to have been the blogger "Pentagon Diva", who briefly ran a blog called "I Luv a Man in Uniform" where she commented on the "hotness" of various Department of Defense officials and analysts.
[citation needed] McFate sought to reverse this trend, holding that it was possible for a mutually beneficial relationship to emerge between the US military and the populations that insurgency sprang from.