Professional Affiliation

Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council

Expert Bio

Michael McFaul is a professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he co-directs the Iran Democracy Project. Previously he directed the Center on Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) for International Studies at Stanford University. McFaul is a non-resident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and serves on the Board of Directors of the Eurasia Foundation, the Firebird Fund, Freedom House, the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy, and the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). He has authored, co-authored and edited a number of books including Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough (2006), Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Postcommunist Political Reform (2004), After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions (2004), Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000 (2003),and Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin (2001). McFaul is currently on n leave serving as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, where he is considered to be one of the top five national security players in government.