Michael McFaul is the director of International Studies at Stanford, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, an international affairs analyst, and a diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.
Born and raised in Montana, as an undergraduate at Stanford University he spent a summer, and later, a semester studying in the Soviet Union, He earned a B.A. in international relations and Slavic languages and an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Stanford. As a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a DPhil in international relations from St John’s College, Oxford.
He is the author of over twenty books; the most recent is Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder. In this book he reviews historical relations among the three countries and the challenges that autocratic China and Russia pose to America and the rest of the free world. Professor McFaul is concerned by the world’s current trajectory and America’s retreat from global leadership. He thinks the erosion of support for democracy—both abroad and at home—threatens American security, undermines our prosperity, and erodes the values we claim to stand for.