Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia and America and the New Global Disorder
The international order in which most of us grew up is over, and a new cold war is setting in. That’s the growing consensus of people adjusting to the aggressive rise of China, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the reelection of President Donald Trump amid the growth of right-wing populist movements around the world. Michael McFaul says America’s future depends on how successfully it deals with this new global order.
McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and an international affairs analyst for NBC News, says new thinking is required. The new cold war isn’t the same as the old U.S.–Soviet Cold War. He argues in his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, that we should not underestimate the disruptive ambitions of Russia, nor should we overestimate China’s capabilities, and that the shift here at home toward isolationism and autocracy weaken America’s position in the world.
Join us in Los Altos to hear McFaul draw from historical analysis and a forward-looking perspective to craft a new grand strategy for the United States in the challenging new age of global disorder.
A Peninsula Chapter program. Chapters and forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, and they cover a diverse range of topics.
This program is presented by Commonwealth Club World Affairs, Los Altos Library, and the League of Women Voters of the Los Altos Mountain View Area
Photo courtesy the speaker.
Los Altos Community Center
Grand Oak Room
97 Hillview Avenue
Los Altos, CA 94022
United States
Michael McFaul
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation; International News Analyst, NBC News; Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University; Author. Autocrats vs Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder
In conversation with Dr. Gloria Duffy
Co-president and Co-CEO, Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California