“They’re Not Like Us”: Michael McFaul on Autocrats vs. Democrats and the Fight for the Twenty-First Century | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution

Podcast: Uncommon Knowledge (LS 62 · TOP 0.1% what is this?)Episode: “They’re Not Like Us”: Michael McFaul on Autocrats vs. Democrats and the Fight for the Twenty-First Century | Peter Robinson | Hoover InstitutionPub date: 2026-03-02Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationFormer US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul returns to Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson to discuss his new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder. McFaul explains why Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and today’s autocratic leaders fundamentally do not think like we do—and why that misunderstanding has shaped some of America’s most consequential foreign-policy mistakes. Drawing on decades of scholarship and firsthand experience inside the Kremlin, McFaul traces Russia’s post–Cold War slide back into autocracy; challenges the claim that NATO expansion caused the rupture with Moscow; and argues that the true threat to authoritarian regimes is democratic example rather than Western military power. He examines the war in Ukraine, its implications for Taiwan, the limits of transactional diplomacy with ideologues like Putin, and the enduring lessons of Cold War statecraft. He also reflects on his unlikely journey from Butte, Montana, to Spaso House —the Moscow home of the U.S. ambassador to Russia— and why he remains convinced that democracy, however fragile, is still the West’s greatest strategic advantage. Subscribe to Uncommon Knowledge at hoover.org/ukThe podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hoover Institution, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.