Ambassador McFaul served in the Obama administration, most notably as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, and previously as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House.

Currently, McFaul is a professor of political science and a Hoover fellow at Stanford University, as well as director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.   He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995.  McFaul is also an international analyst for NBC News.  

McFaul authored or co-authored over 20 books, primarily on American policy toward Russia, including the New York Times bestseller, “From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia.”  Set for release this fall is a book entitled “Autocrats vs. Democrats:  China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder”.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his Master of Arts degree in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University where he completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in International Relations.