First published 2018
Michael McFaul leaves his Stanford position in 2008 to join Barack Obama's presidential campaign, unaware he will soon stand at the center of deteriorating US-Russia relations. As Obama's adviser on Russian affairs, McFaul helps design the "reset" policy that creates new collaboration between the two nations. When he becomes US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, he watches this cooperation crumble as Vladimir Putin returns to power. The Kremlin immediately targets McFaul personally, sending protesters to his home, attacking him on state television, and placing his family under constant surveillance. McFaul chronicles the full arc of US-Russia relations from the Soviet Union's collapse through Putin's rise as a hostile leader. His account combines personal memoir with diplomatic history to reveal how a moment of hope transformed into today's global confrontation.
Genres: international-relations, political-science, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-perspective, memoir
Setting: Russia, United States
Period: 2008-2014
528 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books