Explaining the Causes and Consequences of Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine with Mike McFaul

The Russian military invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Why is Ukraine strategically important to Russia and the West? What are the global implications of this attack? Join Stanford Professor Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2012-2014, for an in-depth look at the invasion of Ukraine and the policy choices facing the United States, NATO, and their allies.
Michael McFaul, ’86, MA ’86, is the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of international studies and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute and the Woods Institute. Professor McFaul served the Obama administration as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House, and as the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. He has written and edited several books on international relations and foreign policy, and his op-ed writings have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. His latest book is From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin's Russia. In 2019, Professor McFaul received The Richard W. Lyman Award for exceptional volunteer service to alumni at Stanford.