Steven Pifer is an affiliate with the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and at The Europe Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where his research focuses on nuclear arms control, Ukraine, Russia and European security.. In addition to working in the Foreign Service for more than 25…

Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She is also a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a…

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner. A close colleague of the slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he has served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. Leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of the opposition, Kara-Murza played a key ro…

Audra Plepytė was appointed as Lithuania’s Ambassador to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States in 2021. Before this she was a Lithuanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations where she facilitated several negotiations, led the Group of Friends, and was elected to executive bodies of UN instruments and institutions, …

This audio was originally recorded on October 26, 2024 during the event, “Global Threats Today: What's At Stake and What We Can Do About It,” held during Stanford University's annual Reunion and Homecoming weekend in affiliation with the Stanford Alumni Association. Featuring: Michael McFaul, Director and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institu…

Susan E. Rice served as domestic policy advisor to President Joe Biden. Previously, she was President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a member of the Cabinet. During the Clinton Administration, Rice was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, as well as Special Assi…

Kristjan Prikk has served as Estonia´s Ambassador to the United States since May 2021. This is his third diplomatic posting to Washington, D.C. Before assuming his current duties, Prikk served for nearly three years as the Permanent Secretary of the Estonian Ministry of Defense. In this role he was responsible for the management of the Ministry and…

Josep Borrell serves as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. He previously served as President of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2007 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2019. He is an alumnus of Stanford University (M.S. '…

Matviichuk originally delivered this speech at the 2024 S.T. Lee Lecture hosted by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer focused on issues within Ukraine and the OSCE region. She is the head of the Center for Civil Liberties, which was a co-recipient of the 20…

Abbas Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a visiting professor in the department of political science. In addition, Dr. Milani is a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. Michael McFaul is the host of World Class and director of the Freem…

Michael McFaul is joined by: Oleksiy Honcharuk, who served as the 17th prime minister of Ukraine from 2019-2020, during which time he introduced important policy initiatives in Ukraine including the institution of business privatization processes, efforts to combat black markets, and the launch of the Anti-Raider Office to respond to cases of illeg…

When Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn set off to make a documentary about Ukraine, he thought he would be telling the story of a comedic showman-turned president named Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the young democracy that had elected him. Instead, Penn found himself witnessing the start of a horrific war of aggression.Sean Penn joined Michael McFau…

To understand why the conflict in Gaza is so complex, you have to understand the history of Israel's relationship with Palestine and Hamas well before October 7, 2023. In this episode of World Class, we bring you a conversation with Ambassador Dennis Ross and Ghaith al-Omari, two experts on the Middle East, who help contextualize the current situat…

Conflict between Hamas and Israel; the ongoing war in Ukraine; rising tensions between China and Taiwan; climate change; dissatisfaction with national politics. These are some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. What do we need to understand better about these issues, and what can be done to address them?On this episode of World…

In September 2023, Michael McFaul and political philosopher Francis Fukuyama traveled to Kyiv to participate in the Yalta European Strategy conference. They met with policymakers from Ukraine, Europe, and beyond; military experts; Ukrainian alumni of fellowship and development programs from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; an…

Changes to the legal code. Massive protests from the public. Walk-outs by members of the legislature. What exactly is going on in Israel? Law and governance expert Amichai Magen joins World Class host Michael McFaul to discuss the growing crisis Israeli democracy faces. Magen gives context on the crisis, explains some of the cultural and institutio…

Featuring: Sauli Niinistö, President of Finland Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute Anna Grzymala-Busse, Director of The Europe Center Oriana Skylar Mastro, FSI Center Fellow and expert on the Chinese military and strategic competition H.R. McMaster, retired lieutenant general and former U.S. National Security Advisor Steven Pi…

It's been a year since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Few people have had a closer view of the realities of that war than Sergiy Leshchenko, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff and an alumnus of the Draper Hills Summer Fellows program at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He joins Mi…

"Women, Life, and Freedom:" this phrase has become the rallying cry of tens of thousands of Iranians around the world. What began as protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman detained by Iran's strict morality police, has become a groundswell in Iran's society unlike anything since the Iranian Revolution in 1979."Those three wor…

In this episode of World Class, we're bringing you a conversation from the 2022 Stanford Reunion. In this recording, you'll hear Michael McFaul and a panel of experts from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies discuss some of the biggest policy challenges of the moment — climate change, Russia and the war in Ukraine, China and Taiw…

As winter in Eastern Europe settles in, the Russian military continues to cede ground to advancing Ukrainian forces. The question many people are asking now is: “What happens next?”Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and political scientist Francis Fukuyama join Michael McFaul on World Class podcast to discuss Ukraine’s progress in t…

While the world still watches the conflict in Ukraine, on the opposite side of the globe, the potential for conflict between Taiwan, China, and the United States is increasing. Will China forcibly try to reunify Taiwan with the mainland? And if they do, how will the United States respond?Larry Diamond, an scholar of Taiwan and Chinese sharp power, …

To launch our new season of World Class, we're bringing you a special extended interview with Michael McFaul and Ray Suarez of the World Affairs podcast about the changing conditions on the Ukrainian battlefield and the political situation inside Russia. Their conversation originally aired on World Affairs on September 23, 2022.Just before Putin's …

This is a special crossover episode of World Class and the World Affairs podcast, hosted by Ray Suarez. Michael McFaul, the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, joins Ray as a guest to discuss what motivated Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine and how is his war changing the balance of power between Russia, the US, Europ…

Data clearly shows that extreme weather patterns like those seen across the globe in 2021 are driven by climate change. But is that fact driving policymakers to make meaningful inroads to address the climate crisis?Marshall Burke, the deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, joins Michael McFaul on World Class podcast to …