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Michael McFaul Profile picture
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23 Mar, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Looking forward to discussing my ideas for reform for U.S. (1) diplomacy, (2) democracy promotion, and (2) USG media, information & public diplomacy efforts on Mar. 25th . Sign up here. americanpurpose.com/events/mar-25-… THREAD 1/
Here's the essay on U.S. diplomatic renewal. 2/ americanpurpose.com/articles/dress…
Here's the essay on democracy promotion . americanpurpose.com/articles/somet… 3/
Here's the essay on information, media, & public diplomacy. Read them all & tell me what I got wrong on Thursday! 4/ END THREAD americanpurpose.com/articles/sell-…

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More from @McFaul

Michael McFaul Profile picture
17 Mar
"The Cold War analogy distorts, more than illuminates, dynamics in US-China relations today." THREAD 1/
Advocates for a new Cold War w/ China underplay the costs and mistakes of the actual Cold War—a tragic era that resulted in millions of deaths, including tens of thousands of Americans, support for autocracies in both the East & West, and billions of dollars spent inefficiently.
This new hegemonic paradigm also forgets (whether consciously or unconsciously) that containment was not a single, consistent US strategy but stretched to mean everything from détente with Kremlin communists to rolling back communism around the developing world. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Michael McFaul Profile picture
5 Mar
In dealing with China today, US leaders should emulate successes & avoid mistakes from the Cold War. THREAD 1/

"American leaders must learn another lesson of the Cold War—détente with a communist regime also will not end confrontation or produce permanent cooperation."
"They tried that approach in the 1970s, and it didn’t work. ...The United States cannot end its great power ideological rivalry with China anytime soon. Instead, it must be managed." 2/
"That leaves only a third, complicated, nuanced path—a patient mix of sustained confrontation and cooperation, containment and engagement, isolation and integration." 3/
Read 8 tweets
Michael McFaul Profile picture
1 Mar
I wrote this in 2009: "To pretend that the status quo [in the Middle East] can be maintained is wishful thinking. The real question is not whether existing political institutions will change, but how they will change." THREAD 1/
"Will the process of political change be evolutionary , as were the transitions from authoritarian rule to democracy in southern Europe in the 1970s or revolutionary, as in the case from the transition from monarchy to theocracy in Iran after 1979?" 2/
"Assuming that the configuration of autocratic regimes in place today will persist 50 years from now is much more naive than believing that some of these regimes might succeed in making the transition to democracy." 3/
Read 5 tweets
Michael McFaul Profile picture
27 Feb
[During the Cold War] The overly expansive containment mission also pulled the United States into immoral alliances and partnerships as US presidents greenlighted coups, embraced dictators, provided aid to illiberal governments and movements, ... THREAD 1/
"and encouraged societal mobilization against communist regimes when chances of success were near zero." 2/
"These mistakes in the ideological fight during the Cold War must be recognized in order to help shape a more successful and nuanced policy of competition, containment, and engagement with China today." 3/
Read 4 tweets
Michael McFaul Profile picture
27 Feb
"In the Cold War, American and European scientists cooperated on projects from nuclear weapons to computer design, animated in part by a common cause to compete with Soviet scientists. This collaborative spirit must be rekindled again." THREAD 1/
" A new union of democracies could develop collective responses to Chinese technological challenges and advance together shared policies and norms for" 2/
(1) nurturing cooperation between 5G and 6G suppliers in democracies (i.e., an industrial policy for fostering synergies among Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson); (2) containing, exposing, and deterring digital meddling; 3/
Read 5 tweets
Michael McFaul Profile picture
25 Feb
"During the Cold War, overzealous efforts at cooperation also produced mistakes." THREAD 1/
"... when pursuing détente, President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger wrongly assumed that their counterparts shared realpolitik theories about the stability of bipolarity and therefore sought to maintain equilibrium; that was a miscalculation." 2/
"In dealing with Chinese communist leaders for decades to come, US leaders must seek cooperation without being lulled into the false assumption that engagement can eventually end bilateral competition regarding power and ideology." 3/
Read 4 tweets

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