Michael McFaul Nominated for Russian Ambassadorship

Ellora Israni
The Stanford Daily

President Obama recently nominated Michael McFaul B.A., M.A. ’86, political science professor and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) to the United States ambassadorship to Russia.

McFaul, who has served as special assistant to the president on national security affairs, director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law and senior director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Security Council, is an academic expert on the transition to democracy in developing countries–including in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union–and has written over 20 books on the subject.

After completing a dual bachelor’s degree in international relations and Slavic languages as well as a master’s in Slavic and East European studies at Stanford, McFaul received a Rhodes Scholarship for his Oxford doctorate in international relations. He has been studying U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia ever since.

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