Michael McFaul is an American diplomat and scholar. In 2009, he joined the Obama administration in the National Security Council, working on issues related to Russian and Eurasian affairs, and later served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. He is the author of several books, most recently the New York Times bestseller "Cold War to Hot Peace." McFaul is currently on faculty at Stanford University and is writing a new book on great power relations in the 21st century.