This episode features U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul an international foreign policy expert who has literally spent a lifetime researching, studying, working on and writing about the importance of international government relationships, specifically the relationship between the United States and Russia.  He is the author of several books, most recently the New York Times bestseller From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia. His current research interests include American foreign policy, great power relations, and the relationship between democracy and development. Dr. McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his Bachelors in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his Masters in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his Doctorate in Philosophy in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991. In this episode he provides his extraordinary insight on the future of international relationships and foreign policy and specifically addresses his experiences as the U.S. envoy to the Russian Federation.