Best Selling Books by Michael McFaul

Russia, once seen as America''s greatest adversary, is now viewed by the United States as a potential partner. This book traces the evolution of American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union, and later Russia, during the tumultuous and uncertain period following the end of the cold war. It examines how American policymakers—particularly in the executive branch—coped with the opportunities and challenges presented by the new Russia. Drawing on extensive interviews with senior U.S. and Russian officials, the authors explain George H. W. Bush''s response to the dramatic coup of August 1991 and the Soviet breakup several months later, examine Bill Clinton''s efforts to assist Russia''s transformation and integration, and analyze George W. Bush''s policy toward Russia as September 11 and the war in Iraq transformed international politics. Throughout, the book focuses on the benefits and perils of America''s efforts to promote democracy and markets in Russia as well as reorient Russia from security threat to security ally. Understanding how three U.S. administrations dealt with these critical policy questions is vital in assessing not only America''s Russia policy, but also efforts that might help to transform and integrate other former adversaries in the future.

This book demonstrates key trends in Russia, a troubled country in whose stability, modernization, and openness to the international community the West still has a huge stake.

For hundreds of years, dictators have ruled Russia. Do they still? In the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev launched a series of political reforms that eventually allowed for competitive elections, the emergence of an independent press, the formation of political parties, and the sprouting of civil society. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these proto-democratic institutions endured in an independent Russia. But did the processes unleashed by Gorbachev and continued under Russian President Boris Yeltsin lead eventually to liberal democracy in Russia? If not, what kind of political regime did take hold in post-Soviet Russia? And how has Vladimir Putin''s rise to power influenced the course of democratic consolidation or the lack thereof? Between Dictatorship and Democracy seeks to give a comprehensive answer to these fundamental questions about the nature of Russian politics.

The demise of communism in the Soviet Union could not have occurred without the activism of dissident, anticommunist leaders who created and nourished a climate in which ordinary Russians gained the courage to stand up to and defeat communist control. But with communism ousted, what new form of government and what new leaders will emerge in Russia, a society that has never known democracy? Michael McFaul, a research associate at Stanford University''s Center for International Security and Arms Control, and Sergei Markov, an assistant professor at Moscow State University, interviewed anti-communist leaders and collected the documents of anticommunist parties in the months preceding and immediately following the August 1991 attempted coup d''etat. To examine the range of the political spectrum in Russia, they also talked to procommunist leaders who emerged to oppose Mikhail Gorbachev''s reforms, nationalist and anti-Semitic leaders of movements such as Pamyat'', labor unions, Christian movements, and organizations opposed to the division of the Soviet Union. What emerges is a kaleidoscope of leaders with distinct ideas on key issues facing Russia: how to reform the economy, what role the market should play in a new economic system, how to respond to growing demands from non-Russian republics for independence, what leaders can be trusted, what Russia''s relations with the West should be, and what form of government would be best for Russia. Gathered here are essays offering historical background on the parties, selected interviews with prominent members of these groups, and important party documents. Whether democracy will flourish in Russia remains in question. The parties profiled here, actively involved in the debate over Russia''s future, offer readers an insider''s look into contemporary Russian politics.

In Advancing Democracy Abroad, McFaul explains how democracy provides a more accountable system of government, greater economic prosperity, and better security compared with other systems of government. He then shows how Americans have benefited from the advance of democracy abroad in the past, and speculates about security, economic, and moral benefits for the United States from potential democratic gains around the world.

The author has identified, analyzed and compared four models of conversion from authoritarian to democratic rule - Russia, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia and Hungary. In this book he explores the origins and development of the revolutions, formations and consolidations of the post-Communist states, focusing particularly upon questions of territorial integrity and division of power. Concluding that although Poland, Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia meet the basic requirement of a democratic system, Russia has not yet reached that point. Instead, McFaul argues, the transition there has only just begun and faces much greater obstacles than any other post-Communist.

This volume provides an evaluation of initial efforts to convert post-Soviet Russian industry from that of a highly-centralized, military-oriented economy to that of a civilian economy with a stronger base in private enterprise. The authors address crucial issues of the embattled economic transformation at the level of particular enterprises and geographic regions as well as in the contexts of state policy, finance and planning. Their analyses offer readers an understanding of the various obstacles that impede post-Soviet economic restructuring and point to ways in which they may be overcome.

From New York Times bestselling author and former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul comes a clear-eyed look at how the rise of autocratic China and Russia are compelling some to think that we have entered a new Cold War—and why we must reject that thinking in order to prevail. Amid the constant party divisions in Washington, DC, one issue generates stunning consensus—China—with Republicans and Democrats alike battling over which party can take the most hawkish stance toward the ascendant superpower. Indeed, far from trying to avoid a new Cold War with China, many have embraced it, finding comfort in the familiar construct, almost willing it into existence. And yet, even as politicians and intellectuals race to embrace this Cold War 2.0, many of the perils we face today are distinctly different from those of the Cold War with the Soviets. The alliance between the autocracies of China and Russia, the nature of the ideological struggle, China’s economic might, the rise of the far right in the United States and in Europe, and the growing isolationism and polarization in American society—taken together these represent new challenges for the democratic world. Some elements of the Cold War have reappeared today, but many features of the current great power competition have no analogy from the past century. For decades Michael McFaul, former ambassador to Russia and international affairs analyst for NBC News, has been one of the preeminent thinkers about American foreign policy. Now, in this provocative work, he challenges the encroaching orthodoxy on Russia and China, arguing persuasively that the way forward is not to force our current conflict into a decades-old paradigm but to learn from our Cold War past so that democracy can again emerge victorious. Examining America’s layered, modern history with both Russia and China, he demonstrates that, instead of simplistically framing our competition with China and Russia as a second Cold War, we must understand the unique military, economic, and ideological challenges that come from China and Russia today, and the develop innovative policies that follow from that analysis, not just a return to the Cold War playbook. At once a clarion call for American foreign policy and a forceful rebuttal of the creeping Washington consensus around China, Autocracy vs. Democracy demonstrates that the key to prevailing in this new era isn’t simply defeating our enemies through might, but using their oppressive regimes against them—to remind the world of the power and potential that our democratic freedoms make possible.