Sioux Falls, South Dakota — Augustana University and the Center for Western Studies (CWS) are excited to announce that free tickets for the 25th Boe Forum on Public Affairs are now available to the public. Dr. Michael A. McFaul will be the keynote speaker for the event to be held at 7:30 p.m., on Thursday, Mar. 31, in the Elmen Center.
McFaul served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2012-14. As a Washington Post columnist and NBC News analyst, McFaul frequently appears on television and radio, where he shares his knowledge of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy. McFaul is also a professor of political science and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow at Stanford University. He was born and raised in Montana.
Hosted by Augustana President Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, this year’s forum is entitled, “Russia and the Future of Europe.” As part of the forum, McFaul will discuss the threat to world peace by the Russian Federation and strength of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as future relations between the U.S. and Russia.
As the creator of the Boe Forum, former South Dakota Gov. Nils Boe, charged Augustana and the CWS with inviting “singularly knowledgeable” individuals who would address events, issues or problems of “current worldwide or national concern and of broad public interest.”
For more details regarding this event, as well as information on tickets, visit augie.edu/boe.
About Michael A. McFaul
Michael A. McFaul served as ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation from January 2012 to February 2014. Prior to becoming ambassador, he served for three years as the special assistant to the President and senior director for Russia and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council. McFaul is a professor of political science and Hoover Fellow at Stanford University. He is also director and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).
McFaul is the author and editor of several monographs including, Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should and How We Can (2009); with Valerie Bunce and Katheryn Stoner-Weiss, eds., Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (2009); with Anders Aslund, eds., Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine’s Democratic Breakthrough (2006); with Nikolai Petrov and Andrei Ryabov, Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Postcommunist Political Reform (2004); with James Goldgeier, Power and Purpose: American Policy toward Russia after the Cold War (2003); and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin (2001). Most recently, he wrote From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia (2018), a New York Times best-selling inside account of U.S.-Russia relations from 1989 to the present.
McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations and Slavic languages and his Master of Arts degree in Soviet and East European studies from Stanford University in 1986. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford where he completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in international relations in 1991.