McFaul’s World — 2025 Year in Review

Looking back on a turbulent year.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

2025 offered little comfort for those hoping for a calmer, more peaceful world. Instead, it reinforced a sobering reality: global politics has entered a more fragmented and dangerous phase, marked by great power competition, growing American isolationism and unilateralism, greater erosion of the international order, and increasing pressures on democracy around the world.

These dynamics in 2025 informed nearly everything I worked on this year. They were central to my writing on Substack, media commentary, and many of the conversations I had with students, policymakers, and audiences—both in the United States and around the world. And, of course, they shaped the core of my new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, which was published in October after a decade in the making.

After the book’s release, I spent much of the fall on the road, speaking with audiences in places like San Antonio, Texas; Hudson, Ohio; Columbia, South Carolina; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Pullman, Washington; Bozeman, Montana, as well as New York, Boston, Washington, and San Francisco. Remember that Johnny Cash song, I’ve Been Everywhere? That’s what my fall felt like! The turnout and engagement far exceeded my expectations—standing-room-only crowds often numbering in the hundreds and events frequently concluding with standing ovations. The crowd in Erie, Pennsylvania (below) was especially enthusiastic!

One attendee travelled all the way from Casper, Wyoming to Bozeman, Montana, to attend my talk in December! I was struck by how much the people I spoke to care about democracy and the role the United States should play in the world.

As I look ahead to 2026, I am eager to continue taking these ideas in my book beyond academic and policy circles and into broader public conversation. Stops in Georgia, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and southern California are already planned. If you have a venue where you’d like me to give a book talk, reach out!

And to all those who purchased Autocrats vs. Democrats, thank you! If people do not continue to buy big, complex, deeply researched books (mine has 59 pages of endnotes!), they will not get published in the future. Not every question worth answering can be done in a tweet!

Standing with Ukraine

Tragically, in 2025, I continued to write and speak extensively about Russia’s war against Ukraine. I say tragically because I cannot believe this war has dragged on for so long.

I have applauded President Trump’s commitment to try to end this war, but am also concerned by the Trump administration’s recent efforts to pressure Ukraine into unjust concessions that normalize Vladimir Putin’s aggression. Rewarding imperialism will only invite more of it, see, for instance, “Trump Is Once Again Acting as Putin’s Agent,” or “I’ve Negotiated With Russia. Trump Is Doing It Wrong,” or “Ukraine is not losing the war, but it cannot fight forever.”

Alongside public commentary, I continued to coordinate the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions, working with colleagues to publish policy papers aimed at ending this horrific war. Our last paper, Working Group Paper #23, published in September, is titled “New Sanctions to Pressure Russia to Agree to a Ceasefire in Ukraine.” I also remained in close contact with Ukrainian friends and colleagues, whose resilience and courage continue to inspire me.

Supporting Ukraine is not only a moral obligation; it is central to the broader fight to defend democratic norms, international order, and U.S. national security interests. I tried to explain why to American and global audiences throughout the year, including during talks I gave in 2025 in Germany, Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China, and Italy.

I also hosted some fantastic people from all over the world at Stanford this year. I was thrilled that the last Liautaud Fellow I appointed at FSI was the Former Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis (below).

Assessing the First Year of Trump 2.0

While focused on the war in Ukraine, I also devoted a lot of my writing and commentary to Trump’s broader foreign policy goals and actions. I am worried about the shift in U.S. foreign policy under Trump 2.0 toward greater unilateralism, isolationism, and indifference to human rights and democracy abroad. In my book, I offer an alternative strategy for advancing American interests abroad. You can read a summary of those recommendations in this essay, “The Case for Renewed Liberal Internationalism.” In this article in The Atlantic, I also wrote about how we are underestimating Putin’s efforts to push illiberal, nationalist ideas around the world. In the New York Times Review of Books, I expressed concerns about Trump’s support for autocratic leaders. And in The Dispatch, I explained how Trump’s destruction of USAID, Voice of America, and other instruments of US soft power was a gift to China. I also wrote about why invading Venezuela would not advance U.S national interests or Venezuelan democracy. At the same time, in Foreign Affairs, I noted how shifts in the balance of power in the Middle East, triggered in part by Trump’s policies, have weakened Russia’s position in the region. You can find most of my writing on McFaul’s World on Substack.

Stepping Down as Director of FSI

This year also marked my final year as director of the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford, after 11 years in the job (12 if you add the year I served as interim director two decades ago). I step down feeling confident about the institute’s future. You can read my farewell letter here.

Since coming to campus as a 17-year-old kid from Montana, I have had many chapters at Stanford, but leading FSI has been a special one. I am immensely proud of our accomplishments over that time. Our footprint at the university has grown in myriad ways, including the addition of three new centers — the Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center, the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, and the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation—the expansion of the Master’s in International Policy (MIP) program, and the appointment of 18 new senior fellows, two center fellows and four senior research scholars, and a host of other appointments, including courtesy appointments for professors around the university, and hundreds of visiting fellows, including a handful of former heads of state.

We have also forged many strategic partnerships across campus and around the world, ranging from the Hoover Institution and the Doerr School of Sustainability close to home, to the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Kyiv School of Economics farther away. We have also raised endowments for seven new senior fellowships and grown FSI’s revenue from $31.1M in AY2015 to $60.6M in AY2025. Our total staff at FSI is now approaching 500. You can see some of our policy impact here. And most importantly, the production of scholarship by FSI senior fellows, including several dozen books and hundreds of articles in top academic and policy journals, has exploded over the last decade.

For those interested in the details, check out an abridged version of my last report to the FSI Advisory Council here.

Looking Ahead

As I step away from my role as FSI director at the end of the year, I am not leaving Stanford, nor am I retiring. Instead, I plan to spend more time mentoring students and engaging directly with Americans—through writing, teaching, and conversation—about democracy, global leadership, and the choices our country faces. In January, I will launch a new Program on Great Power Competition at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Alongside Jim Goldgeier (who, by the way, was just elected President of the International Studies Association!) and Liz Economy, we aim to explore how great power competition affects third countries around the world by identifying the causal patterns that reveal which instruments of influence actually work and which do not. Within this program, I also plan to do more research on how technology is affecting great power competition, especially between the United States and China.

The end of the year is also a time to reflect on blessings. I am deeply grateful to the many colleagues, students, readers, and audiences who have engaged with my work this year. Your questions, conversations, and feedback energize me and serve as a powerful reminder of why public scholarship matters. I end the year more hopeful, more energized, and more curious than I began it. Thank you!

Chag Sameach, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year, З Новим Роком! С новым годом!

And hoping 2026 will be more peaceful than 2025,

Mike