Why This Isn't a New Cold War | Michael McFaul | TEDxMidAtlantic

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tackles one of the most debated questions in geopolitics: are we entering a new Cold War? Drawing on firsthand experience with world leaders, he unpacks the crucial differences — and surprising similarities — between today’s conflicts and the 20th-century struggle. McFaul explains what America gets right, what it’s getting dangerously wrong, and why the real battle may be happening inside democracies themselves. A sharp, urgent talk about power, values, and the choices that will define the 21st century. Michael McFaul is director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995. Dr. McFaul is also an international affairs analyst for NBC News. He served for five years in the Obama administration, first as special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

He has authored several books, most recently Autocrats versus Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder. Earlier books include the New York Times bestseller From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; Transitions To Democracy: A Comparative Perspective (eds. with Kathryn Stoner); Power and Purpose: American Policy toward Russia after the Cold War (with James Goldgeier); and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.

He teaches courses on great power relations, democratization, comparative foreign policy decision-making, and revolutions.

Dr. McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. In International Relations at Oxford University in 1991. His DPhil thesis was Southern African Liberation and Great Power Intervention: Towards a Theory of Revolution in an International Context. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx