McFaul served at the highest levels of the U.S. government, but he is at heart a scholar, educator, and activist. The result is a book that is ambitious, accessible, and incisive in its arguments. But when it comes to his recommendations, even those who share McFaul’s enduring faith in democracy may conclude he has written a playbook for a world gone by.
It is a bad time to argue that the United States should do more to promote democracy around the world, and Michael McFaul knows it. “Some will dismiss my worldview and policy recommendations as old-fashioned and out of date,” he acknowledges in his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats. “I am okay with that.”
It is a bad time to argue that the United States should do more to promote democracy around the world, and Michael McFaul knows it. “Some will dismiss my worldview and policy recommendations as old-fashioned and out of date,” he acknowledges in his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats. “I am okay with that.”
McFaul served at the highest levels of the U.S. government, but he is at heart a scholar, educator, and activist. The result is a book that is ambitious, accessible, and incisive in its arguments. But when it comes to his recommendations, even those who share McFaul’s enduring faith in democracy may conclude he has written a playbook for a world gone by.
McFaul has pushed for democratization since his student days, when he advocated against apartheid in South Africa and supported Russia’s post-Cold War transition. He comes by his convictions honestly, knowing how millions of people’s lives can change when things go well. And for so many years, they did. McFaul’s book is imbued with the spirit of the post-Cold War era, with visions of a world based on cooperation rather than conflict. The book cover for Autocrats vs. Democrats.
In the last two decades, that vision unraveled, and McFaul had a front-row seat. In his previous book, From Cold War to Hot Peace, McFaul details how his efforts for democratic change, from Russia to the Middle Eas
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